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Xalapa / AFP
Mexico’s ruling PRI party was trailing early Monday in key races for governor in elections considered as a test for its hopes of retaining the presidency in 2018.
Results trickled in slowly late into the night in 12 states, out of 32, that voted on Sunday for new governors following an election day marked by incidents of violence.
President Enrique Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) holds the governorship in nine of the states up for grabs.
But early official results showed the PRI leading in just five states while losing its grip on two key states, Tamaulipas and Veracruz, which it has controlled for more than 80 years. The conservative National Action Party (PAN) was leading in six states, including two where it partnered with the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party (PRD). The leftist Morena party was ahead in Veracruz.
PRI leader Manlio Fabio Beltrones had voiced confidence of victory in nine states, declaring “today we can say that Mexico chose PRI.”
PAN chief Ricardo Anaya had claimed wins in three states, the most his party had won in a single election.
“We have broken the authoritarian monopoly the PRI has had for 86 years,” Anaya said. All three candidates in the oil-rich eastern state of Veracruz declared victory, even though final results were not due for hours.
“We didn’t just defeat a political party. We defeated a corrupt system,” said Miguel Angel Yunes, candidate of a coalition of the PAN and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).
But with 24 percent of the votes counted, Cuitlahuac Garcia Jimenez of the left-wing Morena party held a slight lead, with 32.2 percent. Yunes had 31.5 percent while his cousin, the PRI’s Hector Yunes Landa, had 26.8 percent.
Veracruz has been run since 2010 by the unpopular Governor Javier Duarte, whose administration has been marred by drug violence and the killings of 18 journalists.