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2000 Mexican general election

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General elections were held in Mexico on Sunday, 2 July 2000. Voters went to the polls to elect a new president to serve a single six-year term, replacing President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, who was ineligible for re-election under the 1917 Constitution. The election system ran under plurality voting; 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies (300 by the first-past-the-post system and 200 by proportional representation) for three-year terms and 128 members of the Senate (three per state by first-past-the-post – two first-past-the-post seats are allocated to the party with the largest share of the vote; the remaining seat is given to the first runner-up – and 32 by proportional representation from national party lists) for six-year terms.

2000 Mexican general election
2 July 2000
Presidential election
← 1994
2006 →
Turnout63.97% (Decrease 13.19pp)
 
Nominee Vicente Fox Francisco Labastida Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
Party PAN PRI PRD
Alliance Alliance for Change Alliance for Mexico
Popular vote 15,989,636 13,579,718 6,256,780
Percentage 43.43% 36.89% 17.00%
President before election

Ernesto Zedillo
PRI

Elected President

Vicente Fox
PAN

Senate
← 1994
2006 →
All 128 seats in the Senate of the Republic
65 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/–
Alliance for Change Luis Felipe Bravo Mena 39.10 51 +17
PRI Dulce María Sauri Riancho 37.51 60 −16
Alliance for Mexico – 19.29 17 +2
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Chamber of Deputies
← 1997
2003 →
All 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
251 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/–
Alliance for Change Luis Felipe Bravo Mena 39.19 224 +95
PRI Dulce María Sauri Riancho 37.75 211 −28
Alliance for Mexico – 19.12 65 −67
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

The presidential election was won by Vicente Fox of the Alliance for Change, who received 43.4% of the vote,[1] the first time the opposition had won an election since the Mexican Revolution. In the congressional elections the Alliance for Change emerged as the largest faction in the Chamber of Deputies with 224 of the 500 seats, whilst the Institutional Revolutionary Party remained the largest faction in the Senate with 60 of the 128 seats in the Senate.[2] Voter turnout was between 63 and 64% in the elections.[3]

This historically significant election made Fox the first president elected from an opposition party since Francisco I. Madero in 1911, as well as the first in 71 years to defeat, with 43 percent of the vote, the then-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Primary elections

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Institutional Revolutionary Party

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President Ernesto Zedillo sought to break away from the 71-year-old PRI succession ritual, so the PRI conducted an unprecedented internal process to choose its presidential candidate for the 2000 elections. The president declared, "The so-called dedazo is dead"; dedazo being the term used to refer to the president personally choosing his successor, which roughly translates to "handpicking".[4][5]

Francisco Labastida Ochoa, Humberto Roque Villanueva, Manuel Bartlett and Roberto Madrazo were the pre-candidates. Despite the president's statement, there was still a sense that Labastida was most likely to become the official candidate due to being the closest to President Zedillo.[6]

Madrazo's confrontation with Labastida during the election was notable, as was Madrazo's "challenging" stance toward Zedillo, exemplified by his campaign slogan, Dale un Madrazo al dedazo ("Give a Madrazo to the dedazo", though it could also be translated as "Give a blow to the handpicking").[7]

On 7 November 1999 the primary election was held, and widespread reports of fraudulent tactics were present.[4][5] Nevertheless, Madrazo accepted the election's outcome and rejoined the Tabasco government following a meeting with Labastida in Los Pinos, where Zedillo intervened to stop Madrazo from breaking with the PRI. On 20 November Labastida was declared the PRI candidate.

CandidateVotes%
Francisco Labastida Ochoa4,098,61858.13
Roberto Madrazo Pintado2,168,58030.76
Manuel Bartlett Diaz455,2126.46
Humberto Roque Villanueva328,3574.66
Total7,050,767100.00
Source: El Pais

National Action Party

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The former Guanajuato governor Vicente Fox Quesada was the only person to seek the National Action Party nomination and was ratified by the party.[8] Pedro Cerisola was his general campaign coordinator.[9]

Party of the Democratic Revolution

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Porfirio Muñoz Ledo and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas declared their interest in being candidates for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), a contest that ended with Muñoz Ledo's dismissal from the party. According to Muñoz Ledo it was inevitable that the same person would run for office a third time if there was no "true democratic process" in the PRD. Muñoz Ledo was later confirmed as the candidate for the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution and Cárdenas was designated as the PRD candidate.[8]

Campaign

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On 27 April 2000 PAN candidate Vicente Fox sent a letter containing ten points to the apostolic nuncio Leonardo Sandri and the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate, outlining the measures he pledged to take on behalf of the Catholic Church and other Christian churches should he win the presidency. These included advocating for "respect for the right to life from the moment of conception," granting churches access to the media, granting free admission to public health centers, prisons, orphanages and nursing homes for priests and other ministers of worship, standardizing seminary coursework with public institution coursework, in addition to giving churches a unique tax system and allowing them to deduct taxes "when they contribute to human development."[10][11]

Fox reaffirmed his strong religious stance and identified himself as a devout Catholic. Even though Fox had finally won the presidency, the promises he made to the churches in that letter were not kept given that the PAN failed to secure an absolute majority in the Congress of the Union.

Opinion polls

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PRI candidate Francisco Labastida led in nearly all the polls throughout the first months of the campaign, although in the final two months his lead grew smaller; on the other hand, PAN candidate Vicente Fox was at second place in most of the polls, but in May and June his percentage of supporters increased and he led in many of the final polls.

Given that the overwhelming majority of the polls failed to predict Fox's victory and instead had indicated that Labastida would win by comfortable margins, it has been asserted that many of those polled lied about their preferences, fearing that if they stated support for an opposition party, they would be stripped of the government assistance programs they were receiving by the PRI. The Reforma newspaper, which had predicted a Labastida victory in every poll they published during the campaign, attributed their mistake to the so-called "fear factor".[12]

Date Poll source Fox
PAN 		Labastida
PRI 		Cárdenas
PRD 		Others
 Sample
size 		Ref.
November 1999 Mund Opinion 39% 43% 18% 0% N/A [13]
Indermec 44% 39% 16% 0% N/A
GEA 38% 41.8% 16.5% 3.7% 1200
Reforma 33.3% 53.1% 9.9% 3.7% 1542
El Universal 33.8% 46.2% 11.7% 8.3% 1537
CEO 37% 47% 11% 4% 1500
December 1999 Pearson (PRI) 34% 47% 13% 6% 1647
El Universal 39.2% 47.1% 12.5% 1.2% 1475
Milenio 37.8% 42.2% 17.8% 2.2% 1006
January 2000 CEPROSEPP 32% 51% 11% 6% 1510
Reforma 38.6% 48.2% 12.0% 1.2% 1544
GAUSCC (PAN) 39% 45% 14% 2% 20 866
Pearson (PRI) 36.7% 49.7% 11.9% 1.7% 1678
GAUSSC (PAN) 42.4% 43.5% 13.0% 1.1% 1500
February 2000 Milenio 41.1% 42.2% 14.5% 2.2% 1200
CEPROSEPP 32.4% 45.5% 16.1% 6.0% 1346
GEA 44% 36% 18% 2% 1113
Technomgmt. 34.5% 45.3% 17.2% 3.0% 2697
El Universal 38.8% 41.8% 15.7% 3.7% 1438
Reforma 38.6% 47.0% 13.2% 1.2% 1510
Reforma 37.8% 50.0% 11.0% 1.2% 2397
Mund Opinion 35.7% 40.5% 22.6% 1.2% 1182
March 2000 CEPROSEPP 31.8% 46.1% 17.0% 5.1% 1322
Pearson (PRI) 33.4% 51.6% 13.6% 1.5% 1127
Milenio 39.3% 41.6% 16.9% 2.2% 1200
El Universal 39.7% 45.0% 12.7% 2.6% 1438
Reforma 38.6% 47.0% 13.3% 1.2% 1533
GEA 43.3% 38.8% 16.5% 1.4% 1200
Technomgmt. 32.3% 47.9% 17.0% 2.8% N/A
April 2000 CEPROSEPP 31.2% 45.7% 17.6% 5.5% N/A
GAUSSC 41.4% 46.0% 12.3% 0.3% 1500
Technomgmt. 32.7% 47.4% 17.7% 2.2% N/A
Reforma 42% 45% 12% 1% 1647
Quantum 36.9% 50.4% 10.0% 2.7% 1920
El Universal 39.2% 42.2% 14.0% 4.5% 1074
Reuters/Zogby 46.3% 41.6% 9.3% 2.8% 1062
May 2000 Pearson (PRI) 39% 45% 12% 4% 1590
Technomgmt. 39.1% 45.5% 12.5% 2.9% 8000
Reforma 40% 42% 16% 2% 1547
GEA 43.6% 38.6% 16.4% 1.4% N/A
El Universal 42.2% 35.9% 16.2% 5.7% 1787
Milenio 36% 43% 17% 4% 2005
CEO 39.0% 42.7% 15.1% 3.2% 2450
June 2000 Alduncin 41% 35% 20% 4% 2095
Alduncin 41% 35% 20% 4% 2095
CEO 39% 43% 15% 3% 2423
ARCOP 43% 38% 17% 3% 1400
Fishers 36% 42% 19% 3% 2750
GEA 39% 38% 19% 3% 2287
Mund/Dalla 36% 37% 27% 0% 1362
Reforma 39% 42% 16% 3% 1545
Reuters 41% 44% 15% 1% 1330
CM Político 38% 41% 18% 3% 1800
D. Watch 41% 36% 20% 3% 1542
Pearson 39% 43% 15% 3% 1309
Milenio/Nielsen 36% 42% 16% 6% N/A [14]

Conduct

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Some isolated incidents of irregularities and problems were reported. For example, one irregularity in the southern state of Campeche involved the European Union electoral observer Rocco Buttiglione and could have created problems for President Ernesto Zedillo had the PRI candidate won. Overall, however, electoral observers identified little evidence that those incidents were centrally coordinated (as opposed to led by local PRI officials), and critics concluded that those irregularities which did occur did not materially alter the outcome of the presidential vote, which had been more definitive than expected.[citation needed]

Civic organizations fielded more than 80,000 trained electoral observers, foreign observers were invited to witness the process, and numerous "quick count" operations and exit polls (not all of them independent) validated the official vote tabulation. The largest exit poll was organized by the U.S. firm Penn, Schoen & Berland, financed by a Dallas-based organization called Democracy Watch with the support of the Vicente Fox campaign[citation needed], who were concerned about possible election fraud.

Numerous electoral reforms implemented after the widely-derided and fraudulent 1988 election opened up the Mexican political system, and since then opposition parties have made historic gains in elections at all levels. The chief electoral concerns shifted from outright fraud to campaign fairness issues and, between 1995 and 1996, the political parties negotiated constitutional amendments to address these issues. The legislation implemented included major points of consensus that had been worked out with the opposition parties. Under the new laws, public financing predominated over private contributions to political parties, procedures for auditing parties were tightened, and the authority and independence of the electoral institutions were strengthened. The court system was also given greatly expanded authority to hear civil rights cases on electoral matters brought by individuals or groups. In short, the extensive reform efforts of the 1990s "leveled the playing field" for the parties.[citation needed]

Results

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President

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CandidatePartyVotes%
Vicente FoxNational Action Party15,989,63643.43
Francisco LabastidaInstitutional Revolutionary Party13,579,71836.89
Cuauhtémoc CárdenasParty of the Democratic Revolution6,256,78017.00
Gilberto Rincón GallardoSocial Democracy592,3811.61
Manuel Camacho SolísDemocratic Center Party of Mexico206,5890.56
Porfirio Muñoz LedoAuthentic Party of the Mexican Revolution156,8960.43
Other candidates31,4610.09
Total36,813,461100.00
Valid votes36,813,46197.90
Invalid/blank votes788,1572.10
Total votes37,601,618100.00
Registered voters/turnout58,782,73763.97
Source: Nohlen, INE

By state

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State Fox Labastida Cárdenas Rincón Camacho Muñoz Write-in None
Aguascalientes 202,335 127,134 26,264 9,467 2,202 1,389 83 6,291
Baja California 429,194 319,477 77,340 14,562 3,470 3,080 507 14,965
Baja California Sur 60,834 56,230 45,229 2,107 460 364 17 2,804
Campeche 104,498 106,347 35,090 2,485 1,406 1,247 559 9,309
Chiapas 288,204 469,392 272,182 5,340 4,659 4,063 1,056 44,551
Chihuahua 549,177 460,931 76,810 11,569 4,487 3,166 609 21,350
Coahuila 398,800 311,480 77,393 10,392 2,111 1,880 1,454 12,464
Colima 106,445 81,099 23,313 3,159 1,028 542 39 4,377
Distrito Federal 1,928,035 1,060,227 1,146,131 149,312 36,383 18,843 2,009 75,669
Durango 211,361 222,892 50,592 6,144 1,579 1,469 859 9,294
Guanajuato 1,128,780 517,815 121,489 18,248 10,800 8,473 2,873 49,039
Guerrero 174,962 402,091 332,091 6,179 2,913 3,003 954 20,180
Hidalgo 282,864 355,565 136,861 12,319 5,034 4,078 758 19,997
Jalisco 1,392,535 941,962 163,269 45,494 17,567 11,110 3,287 48,736
México 2,239,750 1,637,714 961,876 121,137 40,733 27,203 3,416 92,743
Michoacán 419,188 441,871 543,804 13,058 7,444 6,404 2,060 30,448
Morelos 290,639 193,861 124,368 12,539 2,916 3,010 136 12,296
Nayarit 107,417 173,479 63,121 3,092 1,175 1,024 351 7,043
Nuevo León 760,093 615,907 96,637 20,448 7,478 2,658 1,519 27,201
Oaxaca 301,195 486,496 282,587 11,074 8,372 7,305 1,851 39,616
Puebla 732,435 698,974 208,688 20,170 8,609 7,849 1,142 44,305
Querétaro 290,977 192,622 39,629 10,585 3,768 8,670 170 13,849
Quintana Roo 132,383 94,202 50,487 2,399 916 729 70 5,216
San Luis Potosí 393,997 324,234 72,599 11,073 3,306 2,287 407 22,673
Sinaloa 230,777 621,329 90,488 7,205 2,189 1,675 1,290 15,920
Sonora 447,496 292,267 114,580 6,426 1,672 1,325 94 13,269
Tabasco 174,840 269,519 213,983 5,817 2,599 1,732 655 14,036
Tamaulipas 521,486 445,737 91,426 9,387 3,210 6,932 1,157 19,659
Tlaxcala 123,880 127,163 82,073 5,185 2,508 1,450 53 6,639
Veracruz 1,066,719 1,008,933 491,791 25,474 11,343 10,956 985 58,630
Yucatán 328,503 321,392 27,214 4,258 1,344 987 602 13,127
Zacatecas 169,837 197,336 117,375 6,277 2,908 1,993 439 12,461
Total 15,989,636 13,579,718 6,256,780 592,381 206,589 156,896 31,461 788,157
Source: IFE

Voter demographics

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Demographic subgroup Fox Labastida Cárdenas Other % of
total vote
Total vote 42 36 16 6 100
Gender
Men 47 32 20 1 52
Women 43 40 14 3 48
Age
18-24 50 32 17 1 18
25-29 47 34 16 3 16
30-34 49 34 15 2 15
35-39 47 37 12 4 13
40-45 41 35 20 4 11
46-50 44 37 18 1 8
51-54 46 40 13 1 6
55-59 32 43 24 1 5
60+ 35 42 22 1 8
Education
None 30 46 21 3 8
Primary 35 46 18 1 34
Secondary 49 34 15 2 22
Preparatory 53 28 16 3 21
University 60 22 15 3 15
Employment
Public sector 41 37 19 3 18
Private sector 53 31 15 1 26
Self-employed 42 36 19 3 24
Student 59 19 17 5 5
Housewife 41 43 15 1 25
Region
North 50 37 12 1 23
Center-West 48 37 12 3 18
Center 43 34 20 3 35
South 41 37 20 2 24
Source: Reforma.[15]

Senate

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PartyParty-listConstituencyTotal
seats		+/–
Votes%SeatsVotes%Seats
Alliance for Change14,339,96339.101314,208,97339.003851+17
Institutional Revolutionary Party13,755,78737.511313,699,79937.604760–16
Alliance for Mexico7,072,99419.2967,027,94419.291117+2
Social Democracy676,3881.840669,7251.8400New
Democratic Center Party of Mexico523,5691.430521,1781.4300New
Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution276,1090.750275,0510.7500New
Non-registered candidates30,8920.08031,0790.09000
Total36,675,702100.003236,433,749100.00961280
Valid votes36,675,70297.7236,433,74997.71
Invalid/blank votes854,4592.28852,1062.29
Total votes37,530,161100.0037,285,855100.00
Registered voters/turnout58,782,73763.8558,782,73763.43
Source: Nohlen, IFES

Chamber of Deputies

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Results by coalition (left) and party (right)
PartyParty-listConstituencyTotal
seats		+/–
Votes%SeatsVotes%Seats
Alliance for Change14,323,64939.198114,212,47639.14143224+95
Institutional Revolutionary Party13,800,30637.757913,720,45337.79132211–28
Alliance for Mexico6,990,14319.12406,948,20419.142565–67
Social Democracy703,5321.920698,6831.9200New
Democratic Center Party of Mexico430,8121.180428,5771.1800New
Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution273,6150.750272,4250.7500New
Non-registered candidates30,4520.08030,3800.08000
Total36,552,509100.0020036,311,198100.003005000
Valid votes36,552,50997.6836,311,19897.68
Invalid/blank votes868,5162.32863,2622.32
Total votes37,421,025100.0037,174,460100.00
Registered voters/turnout58,782,73763.6658,782,73763.24
Source: Nohlen, TE

Aftermath

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On election night, exit polls and preliminary results from the Federal Electoral Institute quickly proclaimed PAN candidate Vicente Fox winner. PRI candidate Francisco Labastida then headed to his party's headquarters to give his concession speech, but just minutes before he was to speak, a message from President Ernesto Zedillo was broadcast on national TV, in which the President himself acknowledged Fox's victory and congratulated him. The fact that the concession first came from the President instead of his party's candidate later caused tensions between Zedillo and Labastida.[16] Fox was sworn-in as president on 1 December, ending 71 years of PRI rule.

23 years later, in 2023, Labastida accused Zedillo of having sabotaged his presidential campaign, stating that Zedillo called three state governors to threaten them and make Labastida's campaign fail, since Zedillo wanted to hand the presidency over to the opposition party PAN in order to go down in history as a democrat who willingly gave up his party's 71-year hold on the presidency.[17]

Campaign items (image gallery)

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References

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  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p475 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
  2. ^ Nohlen, p470
  3. ^ Nohlen, p455
  4. ^ a b Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León 5/5. Retrieved 13 February 2024 – via YouTube.
  5. ^ a b "«Madrazo terminó su representación, abrazó a Labastida y regresó a Tabasco»". Proceso. 27 November 1999.
  6. ^ "Nos vemos en el 2000". www.proceso.com.mx. 13 November 1999.
  7. ^ "Dinero ilícito, fraudes e impunidad, detrás de la rebelión de Roberto Madrazo". Proceso. 7 August 1999.
  8. ^ a b México: La Historia de su democracia. 10 - Rumbo al 200 (1997 2000). Retrieved 13 February 2024 – via YouTube.
  9. ^ "Pedro Cerisola - Gabinete Económico". Cámara de Diputados. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  10. ^ "pol1". www.jornada.com.mx. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  11. ^ "ESTADO-IGLESIA NUEVA RELACIÓN ?Debe Fox actuar como hombre de Estado y no como católico?". El Universal (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  12. ^ Kuschik, Murilo (September 2000). Las encuestas y la elección del año 2000. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales. p. 133. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  13. ^ Kuschik, Murilo (September 2000). Las encuestas y la elección del año 2000. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales. p. 8. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  14. ^ Aznarez, Juan Jesus (24 June 2000). "Fox y Labastida empatan en los sondeos a una semana de las elecciones". El País. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  15. ^ Klesner, Joseph L. (March 2001). "The End of Mexico's One-Party Regime". PS: Political Science and Politics. 34 (1): 110. doi:10.1017/S1049096501000166. JSTOR 1350318. S2CID 153947777.
  16. ^ "Labastida revela roces con Zedillo". Excélsior (in Spanish). 28 April 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  17. ^ ""A mí no me ganó Fox, fue Zedillo": Francisco Labastida Ochoa". Grupo Milenio (in Spanish). 28 April 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
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