a political dead heat!
this is an informational handout I just prepared for the study abroad students going to Merida. Sunday is a presidential election and it's down to the wire, which is very cool.
A general election is scheduled to be held in Mexico on Sunday, 2 July 2006, which will be this weekend right after you arrive, so there might be some really neat opportunities for photos. Mexico is going through its tightest presidential election in decades and the options are very different: Business favorite Felipe Calderon (PAN) wants to continue the free market policies of outgoing President Vicente Fox. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (PRD) advocates a shift toward greater social spending. Polls show Mexicans evenly divided between these two visions for their country. There was some discussion about the results being tied to the World Cup results; the argument was that if Mexico made it to the finals, then Calderon would win because of the status quo of the same political party.
On July 2, voters will go to the polls to elect, on the federal level: A new President of the Republic, to serve a six-year term, replacing current incumbent President Vicente Fox (in Mexico the President cannot be re-elected). They are also electing 500 deputies to serve for a three-year term in the Chamber of Deputies and 128 senators to serve six-year terms in the Senate.
The parties are not quite the same as U.S. political parties, but their history is what makes it so important. The National Action Party (PAN) is eager to hold on to the presidency for a second period, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) equally keen to regain the office it lost in the 2000 election for the first time in 71 years (now in coalition with the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico), and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) believing itself with a good chance to win after disappointments in the two previous elections (now in coalition with Convergence and the Labor Party). However, the two front-runners are from PAN and PRD, with the PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo not too far behind.
A couple of articles to read:
LA Weekly
Montreal Gazette
A general election is scheduled to be held in Mexico on Sunday, 2 July 2006, which will be this weekend right after you arrive, so there might be some really neat opportunities for photos. Mexico is going through its tightest presidential election in decades and the options are very different: Business favorite Felipe Calderon (PAN) wants to continue the free market policies of outgoing President Vicente Fox. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (PRD) advocates a shift toward greater social spending. Polls show Mexicans evenly divided between these two visions for their country. There was some discussion about the results being tied to the World Cup results; the argument was that if Mexico made it to the finals, then Calderon would win because of the status quo of the same political party.
On July 2, voters will go to the polls to elect, on the federal level: A new President of the Republic, to serve a six-year term, replacing current incumbent President Vicente Fox (in Mexico the President cannot be re-elected). They are also electing 500 deputies to serve for a three-year term in the Chamber of Deputies and 128 senators to serve six-year terms in the Senate.
The parties are not quite the same as U.S. political parties, but their history is what makes it so important. The National Action Party (PAN) is eager to hold on to the presidency for a second period, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) equally keen to regain the office it lost in the 2000 election for the first time in 71 years (now in coalition with the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico), and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) believing itself with a good chance to win after disappointments in the two previous elections (now in coalition with Convergence and the Labor Party). However, the two front-runners are from PAN and PRD, with the PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo not too far behind.
A couple of articles to read:
LA Weekly
Montreal Gazette
posted by maestro @ 8:35 AM
1 Comments:
At 8:02 AM,
ScottMDPhD said…
You gotta post who wins the Mexican election! I'm on the edge of my seat!
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