COA, 7/2/2009
Mexicans head to the polls for congressional elections on July 5 as an opposition party leads in a majority of polls. With 500 seats at stake in the Chamber of Deputies and 128 in the Senate, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) will likely gain a majority in the lower house. Such an outcome would be considered a comeback for the party that governed Mexico for much of the last century but saw voter mistrust over rigged elections result in a victory for the National Action Party (PAN) in 2000.
2009 hasn’t been kind to Mexico. Earlier this year, international media focus on drug cartel violence led President Felipe Calderón to deliver a vigorous defense of his government’s efforts to stem crime and corruption. Then an outbreak of the H1N1 virus delivered a blow to the country’s economy, which was already showing the impact of the U.S. financial downturn.
Filed under: 2009 Elections, Media and Society, Politics and Elections | Tagged: Mexico, PRI
