After several defeats - Mexico's ruling party looks to state victory

Exit polls and initial results showed a close race between the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party's candidate, Manuel Andrade, and Raul Ojeda of the Democratic Revolution Party. Trailing far behind were nine other candidates, including eight former members of the ruling party, known as the PRI. With 16 percent of the vote counted, Ojeda had 44 percent to Andrade's 43 percent. In third place was Jose Antonio de la Vega, of the National Action Party, with 9 percent. An exit poll of 7,200 voters across the Gulf of Mexico state, conducted by the Center for Opinion Studies and the University of Guadalajara, showed Andrade with 43 percent compared to 41 for Ojeda. De la Vega had 12 percent. The margin of error was four percentage points. Andrade said he believed the election had been fair, and that officials had to "respect the decision of the people." A victory by Andrade would help Gov. Roberto Madrazo in his fight to become national president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which has ruled Mexico since its creation in 1929. Madrazo, with the backing of several of the nation's governors, advocates returning to the party's populist roots and has opposed many recent reforms designed to make the party more democratic. On July 2, the party's presidential candidate, Francisco Labastida, lost to Vicente Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive and member of the socially conservative National Action Party. Fox will take office on Dec. 1. The defeat left the PRI, which had held power by incorporating everyone from peasant groups to wealthy business people, struggling to keep from tearing apart. The country's president had traditionally led the party, and the loss in July left the PRI leaderless and searching for a new identity. The division worsened Aug. 20 when the PRI lost the governor's race in southern Chiapas state, long a party stronghold. But in the Tabasco race, the party saw a chance for its first major victory since the July election. Andrade needed the largest percentage of votes, not a majority, to win the race. Overall turnout on Sunday was brisk, with many of Tabasco's 1.1 million registered voters waiting in line to cast their ballot. However, turnout in some places may have been hurt by recent rains that caused floodwaters to rise, trapping many people on their roofs and increasing frustration with the government in poor neighborhoods with mostly PRI supporters. Standing with his neighbor Sunday near their flooded, corrugated metal shacks, Israel Gomez, 40, said he had always voted for the PRI, but wasn't even going to the polls this election because he had received no help from the government. He pointed to infected scabs on his son's feet, saying no one had come to offer public assistance as they had during flooding in past years.

A PRI campaign sign, hung a few weeks ago, had fallen and hung upside down on his neighbor's house. "It's dead already," Gomez said of the party. On Sunday, Alianza Civica and other observer groups said there were reports of the PRI offering money and gifts in return for votes, as well as parties illegally transporting voters to the polls in taxis and buses. Miguel Rueda, a PRI spokesman, denied the accusations, saying voting had been free and fair. Before the election, many flooding victims had complained of a lack of public assistance. In past years, PRI supporters often received things in return for their vote, but recent reforms have made the once widespread practice less accepted. Jose Luis Mendoza, whose house was in waist-deep water, said he voted for opposition candidate Ojeda after a lifetime of supporting the PRI. "Nothing has been done," he said, standing outside a polling place. "There has been no change, nothing." But not everyone was discouraged. Jorge Luis Santiago, along with his wife and two young daughters, took a boat from their flooded home so that he and his wife could vote for the PRI. After the last governor's race in Tabasco, many of Madrazo's opponents accused him of taking illegal campaign contributions and buying votes. The scandal prompted large protests. Madrazo had guaranteed that Sunday's election would be free and fair, and more than 1,100 election observers were watching 2,110 voting places. Voters also were electing 31 local legislators, as well as 17 mayors.

(AP)