Voters in Yucatan state were set on Sunday to choose a governor in an election seen as an acid test for Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), ousted from the presidency last July after 71 years in power.
In this traditional PRI stronghold, the party is pinning its hopes on its candidate, Orlando Paredes, to reverse its sagging fortunes after it lost the presidency to Vicente Fox of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) last year.
Some one million Yucatecos are eligible to vote in the race between Patricio Patron of the PAN and Paredes.
For the PRI, this governor's race is key to stopping a steady decline in its popularity that began with the loss of the presidency and snowballed when an electoral victory in oil-rich Tabasco state last October was overturned on allegations of voter fraud.
Defeat in Yucatan, best known for its tropical beaches and ancient Mayan ruins, would deal a hefty blow to the party as it faces three other gubernatorial races this year and would weaken its policy-making role in the south.
"Although PRI candidate Orlando is in a no-holds-barred battle, party officials regard Yucatan as one of the states in which they can win a governorship in 2001, thus helping to reverse their declining fortunes," said George Grayson, a Mexico scholar at Virginia's College of William and Mary, in a recent analysis of the election.
A victory for the PAN would extend its reach into the Mexican south, far from its traditional power base in the north, and further erode PRI control over federal policy.
Parties were still closely matched in polls conducted in the days leading up to voting, but allegations of vote-buying from both sides has marred campaigning.
Vote-monitors say handouts have included building materials, sewing machines, washing machines and bicycles.
Over 400 observers from the Yucatan and around Mexico have been called in to monitor the voting process.
Both candidates say they are confident of victory. Both say defeat is not an option.
"Losing is simply not a scenario," Alfredo Rodriguez y Pacheco, the state PAN president, told Reuters.
The PAN has been in Yucatan since 1939, has held the mayoral post in the state capital of Merida twice and even gave state Governor Victor Cervera Pacheco a run for his money in gubernatorial elections six years ago, Rodriguez said -- MERIDA, Mexico (Reuters)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
