Mexico President In Mid-term Test
Mexico president in mid-term test
Mexicans have begun voting in mid-term congressional elections expected to determine the fate of President Felipe Calderon’s economic reforms.Opinion polls put his conservative National Action Party (PAN) behind the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that had dominated politics until 1997. The campaign has been dominated by the collapsing economy and the president’s push against deadly drug gangs. Correspondents say PAN is likely to lose its slim parliamentary majority. Mr Calderon won bitterly fought presidential elections three years ago promising reforms to Mexico’s tax system and energy sector to help restore economic growth.
Mexico has been badly hit this year by the global recession and a drop in the amount of money sent home by migrant workers. The outbreak of swine flu in April has also scared off tourists, which the government has warned may cost the economy more than 2bn (1.2bn). “We’re in the worst crisis,” Salvador Zavala, 66, told Reuters news agency as he voted north of the capital, Mexico City. Government worker Thelma Flores said she was concerned about jobs and education, as she waited to cast her ballot. “That’s what generates the other things, the criminality and organised crime. It’s because of a lack of opportunities,” she told the Associated Press news agency. If the PRI is able to form a parliamentary majority, it could block the president’s efforts to give more powers to the 45,000 soldiers deployed to root out the country’s powerful drug cartels, AP reports. The PRI was in power for nearly seven decades until it losing its majority 12 years ago. Mexicans are electing 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, as well as six state governors and hundreds of mayors.
Source:BBC
