MEXICO CITY — Facing a bloody drug war and lackluster economic growth, millions of Mexicans voted Sunday for a president in an election that surveys suggested may bring back a party that had ruled autocratically for much of the 20th century.
No one issue has dominated the campaign, not the more than 50,000 killed in recent years in the efforts to control drug trafficking or an economy that is growing but leaving behind the poor and failing to raise wages.
Instead, pollsters said voters felt a general malaise and fatigue after 12 years of rule by the conservative National Action Party, which had thrown out the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, in 2000 in the first real democratic election here.
The possible return of the PRI shows the disenchantment many Mexicans feel toward the post-PRI leadership. The explosion of drug-related violence over the past few years is high on the list of concerns, of course, for Mexicans and American policy makers, who say they expect to work closely with the next president to strengthen justice institutions and reduce crime. But voters are equally or more focused on the economy.
Some voters said Sunday that they favored the PRI out of tradition or a sense of nostalgia for what they remembered as more stable time.
“Better the old one you know than the new to get to know,” Jorge Osorio, 70, said, recalling the words of his grandfather as he voted at a poll near Mexico City for the PRI candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto.
Such is the taint of Mr. Peña Nieto’s PRI party, which had stayed in power for years through rigged elections, corruption and patronage, that people were reluctant to admit they had supported him. Leonor Acosta Chavira, 77, who waited to vote with some 300 people in Tijuana, said he was worried that others would get angry if they knew of his choice.
“I vote for the party no matter the candidate,” he said.
But others — and many declined to divulge their choice because of government admonishments for “voto secreto” — said they could not give the PRI another chance.
“The PRI had its opportunity for 70 years, and the country didn’t progress,” said Moises Basilio, 29, of Guerrero State and a supporter of the left-leaning candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who narrowly lost in 2006. “We’re a country with great potential — the problem is the government has never made the people a priority.”
Liliana Patiño, 33, a voter in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl just outside Mexico City, backed Josefina Vazquez Mota, the incumbent party candidate, because “I wanted to give them more time to complete what they started.”
Nearly 80 million Mexicans were eligible to vote, with turnout traditionally running about 60 percent.
There were sporadic reports of long lines at polling stations and some that opened late because they were not ready, while watchdog groups were collecting reports of vote-buying and other irregularities.
Mr. Osorio found that his name already crossed off a list of voters when he arrived at his polling station, even though he had not cast a ballot. Polling workers decided it was an error and let him vote.
All the parties have been accused of providing money and other goods in exchange for support, but the PRI has a reputation for being particularly adept at it.
During the PRI’s rule, its leaders were credited with modernizing the economy and creating lasting social programs — the poet Octavio Paz called them “philanthropic ogres” — but they stifled political dissent, rigged elections and economic crises and corruption scandals eventually lead to its downfall.
Now, with Mr. Peña Nieto, 45, a youthful, well-spoken candidate tailor-made for — and some say, by — television, the PRI is heavily favored to win, based on most polls that have given him a comfortable margin for the last two years. Political analysts said the party was also expected to make gains in congressional elections.
Damien Cave contributed reporting from Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico; Karla Zabludovsky from Ecatepec; Elisabeth Malkin in Mexico City; and Mariana Martinez Estens from Tijuana.
No one issue has dominated the campaign, not the more than 50,000 killed in recent years in the efforts to control drug trafficking or an economy that is growing but leaving behind the poor and failing to raise wages.
Instead, pollsters said voters felt a general malaise and fatigue after 12 years of rule by the conservative National Action Party, which had thrown out the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, in 2000 in the first real democratic election here.
The possible return of the PRI shows the disenchantment many Mexicans feel toward the post-PRI leadership. The explosion of drug-related violence over the past few years is high on the list of concerns, of course, for Mexicans and American policy makers, who say they expect to work closely with the next president to strengthen justice institutions and reduce crime. But voters are equally or more focused on the economy.
Some voters said Sunday that they favored the PRI out of tradition or a sense of nostalgia for what they remembered as more stable time.
“Better the old one you know than the new to get to know,” Jorge Osorio, 70, said, recalling the words of his grandfather as he voted at a poll near Mexico City for the PRI candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto.
Such is the taint of Mr. Peña Nieto’s PRI party, which had stayed in power for years through rigged elections, corruption and patronage, that people were reluctant to admit they had supported him. Leonor Acosta Chavira, 77, who waited to vote with some 300 people in Tijuana, said he was worried that others would get angry if they knew of his choice.
“I vote for the party no matter the candidate,” he said.
But others — and many declined to divulge their choice because of government admonishments for “voto secreto” — said they could not give the PRI another chance.
“The PRI had its opportunity for 70 years, and the country didn’t progress,” said Moises Basilio, 29, of Guerrero State and a supporter of the left-leaning candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who narrowly lost in 2006. “We’re a country with great potential — the problem is the government has never made the people a priority.”
Liliana Patiño, 33, a voter in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl just outside Mexico City, backed Josefina Vazquez Mota, the incumbent party candidate, because “I wanted to give them more time to complete what they started.”
Nearly 80 million Mexicans were eligible to vote, with turnout traditionally running about 60 percent.
There were sporadic reports of long lines at polling stations and some that opened late because they were not ready, while watchdog groups were collecting reports of vote-buying and other irregularities.
Mr. Osorio found that his name already crossed off a list of voters when he arrived at his polling station, even though he had not cast a ballot. Polling workers decided it was an error and let him vote.
All the parties have been accused of providing money and other goods in exchange for support, but the PRI has a reputation for being particularly adept at it.
During the PRI’s rule, its leaders were credited with modernizing the economy and creating lasting social programs — the poet Octavio Paz called them “philanthropic ogres” — but they stifled political dissent, rigged elections and economic crises and corruption scandals eventually lead to its downfall.
Now, with Mr. Peña Nieto, 45, a youthful, well-spoken candidate tailor-made for — and some say, by — television, the PRI is heavily favored to win, based on most polls that have given him a comfortable margin for the last two years. Political analysts said the party was also expected to make gains in congressional elections.
Damien Cave contributed reporting from Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico; Karla Zabludovsky from Ecatepec; Elisabeth Malkin in Mexico City; and Mariana Martinez Estens from Tijuana.