Similar to voters in the United States, the state of the economy is the primary concern for Mexican voters in Mexico’s presidential election.
In the face of what many Mexicans consider to be twelve years of economic failure and corruption under the National Action Party Mexican, voters are expected to give the Institutional Revolutionary Party or Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) another shot at the presidency.
Geraldo Esquivel, an economist at the Colegio de Mexico commented, “There has been a deterioration in the quality of employment. We have a dynamic where we have a modern sector that is experiencing a bonanza and other sectors are much less dynamic.”
In light of the Mexican peoples’ ranking the state of the economy as top priority, all three major candidates have made jobs the cornerstone of their campaigns. Enrique Pena Nieto, the PRI presidential candidate, has been especially visible, gaining popularity among the Mexican middle class.
Many say that the prospect of reinstating the PRI – a party that was regularly accused of rigging elections, striking secret deals with criminals and collecting bribes – is discouraging and certainly speaks toward the desperation of the Mexican people given the current state of the country’s economy.
For more information, please see The New York Times – Pocketbook Issues Weigh Heavily as Mexicans Vote.
I find it a bit surprising that Mexican voters ranked the economy as their number one concern during this election. With over 60,000 civilian deaths at the hands of drug cartels in the last year alone you’d think that putting an end to this mindless violence would be the most pressing concern. The victory of the PRI candidate is even more puzzling when you take into consideration the fact that battling the cartels was not a major selling point for the PRI candidates.