Ruling party sees stinging defeats in Mexican elections

XALAPA, Mexico – Mexico’s ruling party was headed for stinging defeats in some of the 12 governorships up for grabs in state elections, according to preliminary vote counts Monday.

Hobbled by corruption scandals, violence and a weak economy, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party lost four states it had never lost before, including the northern state of Tamaulipas, across the border from Texas.

The party, known as the PRI, also lost in Veracruz, a state of 8 million that is the third most-populous in the country, and Quintana Roo, home to the resort of Cancun.

Entering Sunday’s elections, the PRI held nine of the 12 states up for grabs. According to preliminary vote results, it won only five.

“Mexicans have been angered by several corruption scandals and worried about a sluggish economy, and they showed their frustration at the ballot box,” said Andrew Selee, a Mexico expert at the Wilson Center think-tank in Washington.

Enrique Gutierrez Marquez, a political science professor at Mexico’s Ibero American University, said what occurred has to be seen as “a punishment vote.”

“There is a public perception that conditions in the country are getting worse, in terms of corruption and public safety,” he said.

The ruling party was particularly punished in states like Quintana Roo — where PRI governors built up one of the highest state debt levels in Mexico — and Veracruz, where more journalists have been killed in recent years than any other state.

“Some PRI governors have acted with such impunity that they resemble feudal lords in their realms,” said Gutierrez Marquez.

President Enrique Pena Nieto reacted philosophically, saying “anybody who competes in a democracy knows that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”

“As leaders, we should listen to and act on the message from the voters,” Pena Nieto said.

The big gains were for the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, which alone or in coalition picked up seven governorships.

The PAN wins included the border states of Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, and the central states of Aguascalientes and Puebla.

An unusual alliance between the PAN and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, resulted in wins in the northern state of Durango, Quintana Roo and Veracruz.

“We’re back!” crowed PAN national leader Ricardo Anaya Cortes, referring to the party’s poor performance since losing the presidency to the PRI in 2012. In a statement, the party called the results “a firm and resounding step toward recovering the presidency in 2018.”

The number of states the party controls heading into 2018 will have a significant impact on the amount of resources it has and the number of votes it can muster in the presidential contest.

PRI party leader Manlio Fabio Beltrones appeared resigned to the changing of the guard in states dominated by the PRI since 1929.

“The PRI celebrates the intense competition that is happening in the majority of the states, it’s a sign of the times,” Beltrones said.

But it was the PRI’s own weaknesses that spelled its doom in many states, like the narco-violence in Tamaulipas, where several ex-PRI governors have been implicated in money laundering scandals. The nationwide economic situation doesn’t help: the peso continues to devalue, and economic growth remains weak at around 2.5 per cent.

The PRI lost the presidency in 2000 for the first time in 71 years and won it back in 2012. But Pena Nieto is suffering from low approval ratings, intense narco violence in parts of the country and what some see as a lack of commitment to fight corruption.

The PRI appeared to have won five of the governorships, in Sinaloa, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Zacatecas and Oaxaca. However, they weren’t resounding victories. In two of the five states, the PRI won with only about a third of the vote.

The PRD was the biggest loser, winning no states outright, while the young, upstart Morena party made a healthy start, gaining votes but winning no governorships.

Voters were also deciding local races in Baja California. And in Mexico City, voters were selecting 60 members of a constituent assembly who will write a constitution for the capital.

In that race, the young, upstart Morena party won the most votes. Morena, started by former presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, replaced the PRD as the main left force in many states.

But it remains to see whether the opposition will remain so divided between one conservative party, two leftist ones, and several smaller parties — that it could allow the PRI to hold on to the presidency in 2018.

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Stevenson reported from Mexico City.