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Mexico Institute in the News: PAN REELING FROM POOR SHOWING IN MEXICO ELECTIONS

“Every party has to prove itself in every election to the voters in Baja California,” said Andrew Selee, senior adviser to the Mexico Institute of the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. “Because it’s so far from central control and because Baja Californians are themselves migrants from elsewhere in the country, there’s an independent streak that is unlike anywhere else.”

U-T San Diego News, 7/03/2012

TIJUANA — Sunday’s elections dealt a crushing blow to Mexico’s National Action Party, or PAN, both at the national level and in Baja California, the state where the party first came to power in 1989.

Official results are not expected until later this week, but a preliminary tally by Mexico’s federal Electoral Institute has given Peña Nieto close to 37 percent of the statewide vote. As in the national count, leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, came in second in Baja California, while the PAN’s Josefina Vázquez Mota placed third.

The PRI’s strong showing statewide buoys its hopes for the Baja California gubernatorial election next year, when voters are also scheduled to elect new mayors in all five of the region’s municipalities. But longtime observers said they are used to expecting the unexpected in this state of 3.2 million residents.

“Every party has to prove itself in every election to the voters in Baja California,” said Andrew Selee, senior adviser to the Mexico Institute of the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. “Because it’s so far from central control and because Baja Californians are themselves migrants from elsewhere in the country, there’s an independent streak that is unlike anywhere else.”

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Mexico Institute

The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship. A binational Advisory Board, chaired by Luis Téllez and Earl Anthony Wayne, oversees the work of the Mexico Institute.   Read more