Mexicans were to go to the polls yesterday to elect governors and local officials in nearly half of the country’s states after the bloodiest electoral campaign in more than 15 years.
The vote is expected to serve as an unofficial referendum on Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s tough crackdown on drug-related violence gripping the country.
The elections come less than a week after a deadly ambush on the campaign cars of Rodolfo Torre, who was tipped to win the governor’s seat in Tamaulipas, bordering Texas, for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Egidio Torre, the slain candidate’s brother, has replaced him.
Immediate suspicion for the attack fell on warring drug gangs, with some fingering the powerful Zetas, whose battles with their former allies the Gulf Cartel have led to an explosion of violence in Tamaulipas in recent months.
A mayoral candidate was also shot dead in the state and several others stepped down, while more than 550 electoral officials resigned, according to official figures published in La Reforma daily on Saturday.
“We’re a bit nervous, but we have to go out to vote because it’s our only weapon for the future,” said Pedro Esparza, a factory worker in the border town of Nuevo Laredo.
Deadly attacks have surged across the country, with almost 23,000 killed since Calderon launched a military crackdown on organized crime three and a half years ago.
Fear has spread through many of the 14 out of 31 states holding elections, including 12 for governors.
In Sinaloa, the northwestern heart of Mexico’s drug trafficking industry, the campaign headquarters for the PRI gubernatorial candidate were attacked with two homemade bombs on Saturday, an electoral official said.
The Interior Ministry last week offered extra security for nervous candidates as they were increasingly targeted.
The elections are seen as a test for Calderon’s National Action Party against his main rivals from the PRI — which governed Mexico for more than 70 years to 2000 — ahead of next year’s presidential polls.
The PRI is currently the dominant political force at the state and local levels with leadership in 19 out of 32 states.
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