Katie Putnam, The Mexico Institute’s Elections Guide, 5/21/2012
After the devastating finding of 49 dismembered bodies on a highway outside Monterey that rocked the country on May 13, experts highlighted the surprising lack of attention of the major presidential candidates to concrete security solutions. Dr. Duncan Wood writes for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) about the impact of the economic situation on the upcoming elections, while Fitch Ratings determines the impact of the July 1 election to be “neutral” on the country’s creditworthiness. Read the rest of this entry »
Katie Putnam, The Mexico Institute’s Elections Guide, 5/14/2012
The PRI’s Enrique Peña Nieto appears to hold his lead in the polls after the first presidential debate, and some observers bemoan the lack of interest among young Mexicans in the election and politics more generally. Read the rest of this entry »
Katie Putnam, The Mexico Institute’s Elections Guide, 5/7/2012
The presidential candidates participate in their first televised debate, accusing each other of corruption and of misleading the public. Trailing candidates focus their criticisms on the frontrunner, Enrique Peña Nieto, who did not appear to suffer any fatal blows. Observers disagreed on the best performance of the evening, which suggests that no candidate had a clear win. Read the rest of this entry »
The first presidential debate in Mexico’s 2012 elections took place on Sunday, May 6th, 2012. The debate between Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI, Josefina Vázquez Mota of the PAN, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the PRD, and Gabriel Quadri de la Torre of PANAL was the first of two debates mandated by Mexico’s electoral law. Our analysis of the session is available here.
The IFE, Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute, has posted the debate online on its YouTube account.
El Universal, one of Mexico’s leading newspapers, has published its exit poll following the debate. According to El Universal’s poll, 36.3% said that if the elections were held today, they would vote for Peña Nieto; 23.4% would vote for López Obrador, 22.0% would chose Vázquez Mota and 9.5% would prefer Quadri.
When asked who, in their opinion, won the presidential debate, 31.6% of the respondents considered Peña Nieto to be the victor candidate, 20.8% voted in favor of López Obrador, 18.4% voted for Quadri and 17.3% for Vázquez Mota. It is worth noting that 11.9% of the respondents considered neither candidate to have won the debate.
The Mexican news source, Animal Político, offers a fresh new take on the discussion of the presidential debate through Palenque, an online forum to exchange ideas on key questions regarding contentious issues in Mexico. Opinion leaders and experts from different disciplines comment on the discussion question: ¿Quién ganó y quién perdió el debate? ¿Por qué? (Who won and who lost the debate? Why?). Click here to follow the debate.
Katie Putnam, The Mexico Institute’s Elections Guide, 4/23/2012
With just over two months left before the July 1st elections, the PRI’s Peña Nieto continues to secure his lead in the presidential contest as the PAN and PRD candidates struggle for second place. Some polls put the PRI-Green Party (PV) alliance ahead in congressional elections, while the PRD’s mayoral candidate leads by a wide margin in the Mexico City race. The polls are not promising for the governing PAN party. Read the rest of this entry »
Katie Putnam, The Mexico Institute’s Elections Guide, 4/16/2012
The PAN’s Josefina Vázquez Mota seeks to solidify party unity by expanding her campaign team, while the PRI’s Enrique Peña Nieto gets more specific on security policy and the PRD’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador reassures business leaders. Read the rest of this entry »
Katie Putnam, The Mexico Institute’s Elections Guide, 4/9/2012
As the PAN’s Josefina Vázquez Mota and the PRD’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador seek to catch frontrunner Enrique Peña Nieto (PRI) in the narrowing window before the election, analysts wonder whether new electoral rules have made that increasingly unlikely.
Katie Putnam, The Mexico Institute’s Elections Guide, 4/2/2012
The political campaigns reopened on March 30th after a month and a half long pause mandated by electoral law. The PRI’s Enrique Peña Nieto commands a 15-point lead in the polls, while the PAN’s Josefina Vázquez Mota struggles to keep her party united behind her and the PRD’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador seems unable to expand his reach beyond his core supporters. Read the rest of this entry »
Katie Putnam, The Mexico Institute’s Elections Guide, 3/26/2012
In this last week before the campaign reopens, a new poll shows Enrique Peña Nieto pulling away from his competition while Reforma highlights each candidate’s energy policy. While all candidates oppose outright privatization of the state-owned Pemex, two in particular favor increasing private participation and greater competition. Read the rest of this entry »
Katie Putnam, The Mexico Institute’s Elections Guide, 3/19/2012
The PAN attempts to downplay a discouraging number of resignations and controversy over possible scandals and croynism, as Andrés Manuel López Obrador (PRD) defends his objectives to Playboy and Enrique Peña Nieto’s campaign chief discusses economic policy under a potential PRI government. Read the rest of this entry »
This site provides a comprehensive guide to the best resources on the 2012 Mexican elections by the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center. You can find background on the political parties and candidates, follow where they stand in the polls, check their stance on security, the economy and on other important topics, find sites for further reference, and review the key dates and moments in the lead-up to the election itself on July 1st, 2012.
After the devastating finding of 49 dismembered bodies on a highway outside Monterey that rocked the country on May 13, experts highlighted the surprising lack of attention of the major presidential candidates to concrete security solutions. Dr. Duncan Wood writes for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) about the impact of the economic situation on the upcoming elections, while Fitch Ratings determines the impact of the July 1 election to be “neutral” on the country’s creditworthiness. Read the rest of this entry »
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