MEXICO: Tense Chiapas vote adds to Mexico political crisis

Mexico's poor, largely Maya Indian state of Chiapas voted on Sunday (August 20) in a tense governor's race that could add volatility to a national political crisis following a disputed presidential election. The result is expected to be tight, raising fears of further political unrest and possible violence in Chiapas, where Zapatista rebels took up arms in 1994. Mexico is already reeling from the July 2 presidential vote, which has led to weeks of protests and cries of fraud from supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who narrowly lost to conservative ruling party rival Felipe Calderon. Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, governs Chiapas but Calderon's party threw its support behind a rival candidate at the end of the campaign to try to topple the PRD here. The battle is now between the PRD's Jaime Sabines and Jose Antonio Aguilar Bodegas of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ran Mexico for seven decades before it was toppled in 2000. "I believe that this election will be resolved peacefully, that is what we expect. It will be a contribution to the governability of this country," said Sabines after casting his vote. Calderon's National Action Party, or the PAN, and the PRI accuse Chiapas' outgoing governor of the irregular use of public funds in this campaign. Mexico's top electoral court is examining Lopez Obrador's allegations that thousands of ballot boxes were tampered with during the presidential election, although it is expected to confirm Calderon's victory and declare him president-elect. Lopez Obrador sees Chiapas as a chance to strengthen his position in the wake of the July 2 vote, and he traveled to the state last week to drum up support for his party's candidate. A defeat in Chiapas would be a blow to his bid to build a national protest movement trying to stop Calderon taking office. He says the unprecedented alliance between the PAN and the PRI here is evidence of a conspiracy against him. "The most recent evidence of the alliance among the elite in power is right now in Chiapas where those of the PRIAN (PRI AND PAN parties) without prudence and in an immoral way have united to try to avoid a government chosen by the will of the people," Lopez Obrador said at his weekly rally in Mexico City. Free market champion Calderon visited several PRI governors on a visit to southern Mexico last week. He is trying to win PRI support for economic reforms he hopes to push through a divided Congress once he takes power in December. A sizable chunk of Chiapas' eligible voters belong to the Zapatista leftist rebel force that burst from the state's jungles in 1994 in a brief but bloody uprising. The Zapatistas now live in self governed villages and do not vote in elections.

ITN Source | August 21, 2006

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