President’s party loses majority in Mexico election
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MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon suffered a setback in midterm elections yesterday when the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party unseated his party as the largest force in Mexico’s fractured Congress in a vote that turned on the global economic crisis and the government’s crackdown on drug traffickers.
The president is popular, and his conservative National Action Party tried to keep the campaign focused on the government’s social programs and its attack on organized crime. But it was clearly not enough in a year when the economy is expected to contract by as much as 8 percent.
Although a majority of Mexicans still support Calderon’s battle against drug cartels, the vote suggests a weariness with the increasing levels of violence the fight has spawned. Nearly 800 people were killed in drug-related violence in June, a record.
As partial results were being reported, the National Action Party’s leader, German Martinez, acknowledged that the PRI had won a simple majority of seats in the lower house of Congress.
The vote marked a return to strength for the PRI, which governed Mexico for 71 years before losing the presidency in 2000.
Voters, however, have shown little enthusiasm for any of the major parties. Election officials expected some 60 percent to 70 percent of voters to sit out the vote, which replaced all 500 members of the lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies.
