MEXICO: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution set lose the Tabasco gubernatorial race

Mexicans voted in a state election on Sunday (October 15, 2006) that could deliver a major blow to the country's leftist opposition leader, who is struggling after losing his bid for the presidency. Opinion polls predict former presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's candidate will lose the Tabasco governor's race to the incumbent Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for most of the past century. "It definitely suits us to be at peace, in harmony, brothers. Whoever wins, wins and whoever loses, loses," said voter Darvin Pozo after casting his ballot. A strong defeat for Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, in the balmy southern state of about 2 million people could leave a large question mark over his political future. Lopez Obrador, a former Indian rights worker who comes from Tabasco, lost the July presidential race by a whisker to conservative Felipe Calderon. After the vote, the leftist alleged fraud and brought central Mexico City to a standstill with protests, alarming many with strong rhetoric against his rivals. Lopez Obrador won a majority of votes in Tabasco in July, far ahead of the PRI. But just three months later, poor ratings for PRD candidate Cesar Ojeda, whom Lopez Obrador has actively supported on the Tabasco campaign trail, suggest voters might be turned off by the post-election protests and fraud accusations. Most opinion polls place Ojeda 10 points behind Andres Granier of the incumbent PRI. "We have noticed and we have been observing at this point that we were not coming here for a confrontation or to cause any conflict, or to break the state election process," reassured the President of the PRD, Leonel Cota. Polling stations in Tabasco were due to close at 6 p.m. (2100 GMT). The PRI's Granier has lured support from the left in Tabasco by promising economic help for the elderly, single mothers and the handicapped -- the kind of handouts that made Lopez Obrador popular as Mexico City mayor. Lopez Obrador warned this week he would be on the lookout for vote-rigging in Tabasco and would no more accept it there than he did in the presidential election.

ITN Source | October 16, 2006

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