Mexico’s former ruling party Sunday was the favorite to win the governorship of Coahuila state, which borders Texas, in the last state election before next summer’s presidential race.
A victory by Humberto Moreira would serve as another boast for his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which controlled Mexico’s presidency from 1929 until losing to President Vicente Fox, of the conservative National Action Party in 2000.
The PRI has already shown resilience this year, capturing four of the six gubernatorial elections before Sunday, and it has held power in Coahuila since its inception in 1929.
A win by Moreira in this northern industrial state does not guarantee the PRI’s return to the presidency, however. Its two potential presidential candidates trail former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, in most national polls.
Fox is barred by law from seeking a second, six-year term and his party’s likely candidates are even longer shots to win at the presidential polls in July 2006.
A former elementary school teacher, the 39-year-old Moreira stepped down as mayor of Saltillo, the state capital, earlier this year to seek the governor’s office. He has pledged to improve infrastructure and the education system in a state that’s home to 2.3 million people.
“Our strength in the polls is clear,” said Moreira, who arrived at a local teacher’s academy with his wife and two young children to cast his vote.
More: signonsandiego.com
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With nearly 20 percent of the vote counted late Sunday, Humberto Moreira had 57 percent, compared to 35 percent for Jorge Zermeno, a 56-year-old lawyer and senator running with President Vicente Fox's National Action Party.
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