Credit:UNESCO

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is still Mexico’s most popular political organization, according to a poll by Consulta Mitofsky. 27.1 per cent of respondents would vote for the PRI in the next election to the Chamber of Deputies.

The governing National Action Party (PAN) is second with 25.1 per cent, followed by the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) with 13.1 per cent.

The PAN’s Vicente Fox ended 71 years of uninterrupted rule by the PRI in the 2000 presidential election, winning a six-year term with 42.5 per cent of the vote.

Mexican voters chose their new president in July 2006. Official results placed Felipe Calderón of the PAN as the winner with 36.68 per cent of all cast ballots, followed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the PRD with 36.11 per cent. Calderón—a former energy secretary—took over as Mexico’s head of state in December.

In the July 2006 legislative election, the PAN secured 206 seats in the 500-member Chamber of Deputies, followed by a PRD-led alliance with 160 lawmakers, and a coalition of the PRI and the Green Environmentalist Party (PVEM) with 121 mandates.

Calderón’s administration is trying to introduce legislation that would allow foreign investors to participate in state-owned oil company Pemex. The PRD and the Broad Progressive Front (FAP) fiercely oppose the bill, claiming it is the beginning of a process that would lead to Pemex’s privatization. The PRI has expressed "conditional support" for the proposal.

On Jul. 9, opposition lawmakers ordered an investigation into allegations that the Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN)—Mexico’s top intelligence agency—hired a company to spy on lawmakers who opposed the oil bill. The government has denied the accusations. PAN legislator Diódoro Carrasco declared: "It’s normal and natural that the CISEN seeks to profile lawmakers."

On Jul. 10, PRI Senate leader Manlio Fabio Beltrones said he wants the attorney general to investigate the allegations, adding that he was "angry and indignant" over the matter.

Polling Data

Which party would you vote for in the next election to the Chamber of Deputies?

Source: Consulta Mitofsky
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 1,000 Mexican adults, conducted from Jun. 20 to Jun. 24, 2008. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

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