Mexicans select Congress to shape Fox's last years in office

The Associatd Press

MEXICO CITY -- Frustrated with President Vicente Fox's failure to deliver on a long list of promises -- including persuading the United States to pay more attention to its southern neighbor -- voters were picking six governors and 500 new lawmakers for Mexico's lower house of Congress on Sunday.

The elections, the first nationwide vote since Fox's victory three years ago, presented a strong contrast to the euphoria of the 2000 polls, billed as the most democratic in the history of modern Mexico.

Fox, the first opposition candidate to defeat a member of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, spent the first half of his six-year term fighting with Congress and failing to achieve the majority of his goals.

Many hope the results of Sunday's vote will end three years of government gridlock, but polls indicate that is unlikely because no party is expected to win a majority in Congress.

Fox remained optimistic. After casting his ballot, he gave reporters a thumbs-up and appealed for a large turnout, saying that was the best way to "strengthen and guarantee our democracy."

Voting at a crowded polling station in Mexico City, 71-year-old Concepcion Marquez said many Mexicans were disappointed with the slow pace of change under Fox.

But she said she still believes dethroning the PRI was good for Mexico.

"You can't expect to change in six years what they spent 70 years ruining," she said.

As Marquez waited in line to vote, Pedro Flores drove up with two vans full of PRI election observers sent to polling stations to watch for abuse. Flores said he believed voters were becoming disillusioned with Fox's National Action Party, and that the PRI was making a comeback.

"It's premature to say that everything is perfect, but things have gotten much better," he said.

Maria Felix Olivar, 38, said she was tired of both the PRI and National Action and planned to vote for the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party. Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a possible presidential candidate in 2006, has increased Democratic Revolution's profile in the capital and won over many voters with his public works projects.

"It just seems that (Democratic Revolution) does more for people who have less," Felix Olivar said.

Independent observers were sent out to keep an eye on Sunday's vote, which was relatively peaceful despite the usual allegations of vote-buying and abuse.

A handful of conflicts erupted: In the troubled town of San Salvador Atenco outside Mexico City -- where residents a year ago took hostages and forced officials to scrap plans for a new international airport -- protesters succeeded in closing down some polling stations with fistfights and threats against electoral workers.

In southern Chiapas state, more than 200 Zapatista rebel sympathizers sacked voting booths, burned ballots and threatened journalists in an angry protest against the government.

And one National Action candidate's electoral situation was in doubt after police found several guns in a private plane that flew him to Mexico from Texas. Luis Eduardo Zuno was competing for a congressional seat representing Mexico City.

After Fox's defeat of the long-entrenched PRI, voters were confident the new president would deliver on promises ranging from the creation of millions of jobs to a migration accord with the United States.

But the Sept. 11 attacks sidelined a migration accord, and Fox's once-warm relationship with President Bush has cooled amid a growing feeling here that the United States has forgotten Mexico.

Lawmakers accused Fox of spending the first few years of his term catering to the U.S. government, without results. Frustrated with the former Coca-Cola executive's numerous trips north, they once blocked him from traveling to the United States, saying he needed to focus on Mexico.

Alma Gonzalez, who voted for Fox three years ago but supported Democratic Revolution on Sunday, wondered what happened to Fox's promises to create jobs and raise wages so that fewer Mexicans would have to cross the border in search of work.

"He had good intentions, but he lost his way," she said.

Voters also were choosing countless local offices as well as six governors in Sunday's balloting.

National Action appeared likely to lose its border stronghold -- the wealthy, industrial state of Nuevo Leon -- to the PRI, but was poised to take the central state of San Luis Potosi from the PRI. National Action also should hold onto small central Queretaro state, while the PRI is likely to remain in control of Campeche and Colima.

The gubernatorial race in the border state of Sonora, currently ruled by the PRI, was too close to determine a solid front-runner.