Recount ordered in key Mexico race

A man wearing a donkey mask stands in front of a campaign banner of “Burro Chon” (Donkey Chon) who is running for mayor in Ciudad Juarez. Burro Chon was created by an anonymous blogger to make fun of the mayoral candidates from Mexico’s political parties. The words on the poster read: “Better a donkey for president, than a president donkey”.

AFP/Mexico City

Mexican election officials yesterday declared the preliminary results of a key race for governor in Baja California invalid after the ruling party and the opposition both claimed victory in the politically valuable state.

The election in Baja California, which borders the US, was the biggest prize in regional polls held in 14 states on Sunday after one of the most violent campaign seasons in recent years. Analysts say the result in the border state could affect a national reform pact.

The head of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Cesar Camacho, and the president of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), Gustavo Madero, both rushed to declare victory minutes after polling stations closed on Sunday.

With 97% of votes counted by yesterday morning, the preliminary results showed PAN candidate Francisco ‘Kiko’ Vega winning with 47.15% compared to 44.14% for PRI hopeful Francisco Trenti.

But the Baja California Electoral Institute scrapped the results, citing a technical problem, and called for a recount that will begin tomorrow and is expected to finish Sunday.

With the result now unknown, Camacho reversed course and said he would wait for the official result before declaring victory.  “I no longer say that we won. I’m not saying we lost. I prefer to be conservative for now,” Camacho told MVS Radio.

The PAN, however, and their allies from the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) voiced confidence that their joint candidate would triumph.

“We are completely certain of our clear triumph,” said PAN elections secretary Arturo Garcia Portillo.

The state is significant in Mexican political history: the PAN has held the post since 1989, when it broke decades of dominance by the PRI, which ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century through rigged elections and repression.

Defeat for the PAN would be another hard knock for the conservatives, who made history in 2000 when they won the presidency, ending the PRI’s 71-year dominance. The PAN has faced intra-party fighting since losing the presidency last year.

For the PRI, it would mark another big victory after President Enrique Pena Nieto ended the party’s 12-year absence from the nation’s highest office in July 2012.

Analysts say a Baja California defeat for the PAN could weaken Madero, who has faced dissent over his decision to sign a pact with the PRI and PRD to enact nationwide reforms.