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Monday, February 4, 2008

Trouble in paradise: Cancun gets its very own election controversy

By Jeremy Schwartz | Monday, February 4, 2008, 10:57 AM

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Ever since that summer in 2006, election controversy has become a way of life here in Mexico. And the latest flareup is occurring in the one spot millions flock to in order to escape such daily drudgeries: the white sand beaches of Cancun.

Cancun makes up one of the ritziest, and wealthiest, municipalities in all of Mexico, and as such is a coveted prize for Mexico’s political parties. Yesterday’s city elections didn’t produce a clear winner so much as a potentially nasty fight between the PRI, which continues to defy oddsmakers who predicted its disappearance after the 2006 presidential elections, and the left-leaning PRD. The PRI claimed victory in Cancun long before the first official early returns came in, causing the PRD to claim its own victory in the city. The PRD denounced all manner of dirty trickery on the part of the PRI, including using public buses and taxis to ferry its voters to the polls. “There is a desperation to conserve the hegemony of a retrograde government, and that is very sad,” said PRD candidate Greg Sanchez Martinez.

The PRI has rebounded strongly since the disastrous 2006 election, in which its presidential candidate came in a distant third. PRI governors run 18 of Mexico’s 32 states, not a bad showing for a party many thought was headed for extinction.

By this morning, the PRD candidate had a 2,500 vote lead in Cancun, with the specter of a legal fight over the results looming.

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