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PARTIDO REVOLUCIONARIO INSTITUCIONAL SWEEPS MIDTERM ELECTIONS AT EXPENSE OF GOVERNING PARTY.

Article Excerpt
With some headlines proclaiming, "The dinosaur has awoken," the former governing Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) carved a bigger space for itself on the Mexican political landscape with overwhelming victories in the congressional elections and in five of the six gubernatorial races in the July 5 midterm elections. A less-than-enthusiastic electorate returned the PRI to a dominant political position, with absentionism and participation in the "blank vote" campaign reportedly high.

Under the blank-vote campaign, voters simply marked a big X on their ballot instead of casting a normal vote. By all accounts, the biggest loser was President Felipe Calderon's governing Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), which not only lost control of the Congress but also ceded two gubernatorial seats to the PRI. The performance of the left, both the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD) and the parties that support ex-presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, was also underwhelming.

The PRI's significant victory was evident in almost every corner of the country. The party, which obtained almost 37% of the national vote, will be able to set the agenda in the Chamber of Deputies because it, along with its coalition partner the Partido Verde Ecologista Mexicano (PVEM), will control 260 of the 500 seats.

Additionally, the PRI won five of the six gubernatorial elections, pulling upsets against the PAN in Queretaro and San Luis Potosi states. The PRI's only loss in the gubernatorial elections was a surprising defeat to the PAN in Sonora state.

Economic slump, violence drove voters to PRI

Many political observers and analysts had already anticipated the PRI's return to power, given the deteriorating Mexican economy with the country's GDP expected to fall by at least 6% this year (see SourceMex, 2009-05-20). Plus, voters have major doubts about the effectiveness of Calderon's war on drugs, which has increased, rather than decreased, extreme violence in some parts of the country (see SourceMex, 2007-01-24 and 2008-11-05).

"If we start with the country's bad situation, both in public safety, with a government so obsessed with combating organized crime, and in an economic crisis that has affected employment and the well-being of the citizenry, then we have a very unfavorable scenario for the government [and...

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