
In a Mood of Frustration, Mexicans Go to the Polls
MEXICO CITY — In a climate of frustration
watch replicawith politics as usual, Mexicans voted Sunday in midterm elections that are likely to turn on President Felipe Calderón’s handling of the global economic crisis and his crackdown on drug trafficking cartels.
The economy is expected to contract
fake watchesas much as 8 percent this year, and the government has been criticized for moving too slowly to respond to the crisis. But Mr. Calderón’s conservative National Action Party has tried to keep the campaign focused on the government’s popular social programs and its attack on organized crime.
Although election results were not expected
fake watch until late Sunday, the strategy seems to have partly worked. A majority of Mexicans support Mr. Calderón’s decision to take on the powerful drug cartels even though drug-related violence continues to grow and almost 800 people were
cheap watches killed in June, a record. He remains personally popular, with an approval rating of 69 percent, according to a nationwide poll published in the newspaper Reforma in June.
Recent polls show that his party, known as the PAN, is expected to lose seats in Congress, but not in the wholesale sweep by the opposition that many
rolex replica analysts predicted three months ago.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which governed Mexico for 71 years before losing the presidency in 2000, is expected to replace the PAN as the largest party in Congress. It is unlikely to win a majority, though, and will need to negotiate with the PAN or smaller parties to pass legislation.
The PRI, a nominally centrist party, has not directly opposed Mr. Calderón’s drug policies but has campaigned on its experience and vague promises to improve security.
Voters, however, have shown little enthusiasm for any of the major parties, and they seem to blame politicians in general for their problems.
A movement asking voters to cast a blank ballot, or “nulo” vote, as a protest has been the talk of the news media over the past month. One recent nationwide telephone poll by Reforma found that 17 percent of voters planned to cast a blank vote, but nobody is sure how far the movement extends beyond urban educated voters.
In addition, election officials expected some 60 to 70 percent of voters to sit out the vote, which will replace all 500 members of the lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies. Voters will also replace six governors and hundreds of mayors and local legislators.
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