Mexico’s big day · Global Voices
Leon Felipe Sanchez

Just hours before the presidential elections in Mexico, the run for the presidency seems to be heading to a very tight end. Polls show a very short distance between the two leading candidates. Right now I can’t give you any further details on how the numbers are showing because of a restriction on Mexican electoral legislation that states the prohibition to post by any means any polls seven days before the election takes place but the truth is that both Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Felipe Calderón Hinojosa are just a very short distance from each other.
This election will be very important to Mexico for it will be the proof for it to consolidate its democracy or return to the old practices in which the ruling party used to handle elections watching only under its own interests.  Unfortunately, the fear is that it will come to bring back those old practices since the campaign of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, militant in the ruling party PAN, has been backed by the government by publicizing a number of public actions to favor their candidate. However, the government has denied that they have in fact favored Felipe Calderón with this ad campaign.
As for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the former major of Mexico City, he has come to head the polls after an important decrease in his numbers, as he didn’t want to attend the first presidential debate. His participation in the second presidential debate brought him back into the race as this marked his reappearance in media after a long absence which he chose to take in order to avoid confrontations with his competitors. Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the candidate for the left-wing party PRD that is very popular in Mexico City and the south part of Mexico.
The third runner up so far is Roberto Madrazo Pintado who is also behind in the polls by a very slight margin from Felipe Calderón who was in second place in the last polls published. Roberto Madrazo is the candidate for the once hegemonic party PRI that ruled Mexico for over 70 years in a row. His candidacy has been affected by the fact that he practically imposed himself as candidate against the will of the majority of PRI’s militants. He also represents the past to which no Mexican wants to go back. His history is surrounded by alleged acts of corruption and electoral fraud back when he ran for Governor of his State Tabasco.
There are two other candidates from newly formed parties that don’t really have any chance of winning the election. These candidates are Patricia Mercado from the PASC and Roberto Campa from the PANAL.
Right now there are some fears among Mexican society such as:
•	The fear of having a State election clouded by fraud
•	The fear of having confrontations between people that backs different candidates in case that their candidate loses.
•	The fear that the winner will not have enough support on the House of Representatives and the Senate therefore not being able to rule under fair conditions.
•	The fear of voting for the “less-worse” rather than the best candidate.
We’ve had a very long campaign that has been centered on disqualifying the candidates rather than proposing ideas or plans for the Mexican growth. This, as I said before, has led to a divided society polluted, in a not to be underestimated way, by anger caused by this long campaign.
On sunday Mexico will decide its future. There will be a full live coverage of the elections on different blogs but mainly on Mirada Pública and Alt1040. Make sure to visit these websites to stay up to date with what will be happening on this important date for Mexico.
This coverage will be very important for the mexican blogosphere as it will mark the beggining of a coverage of this kind ever. Mirada Pública will be aggregating news and posts from 38 bloggers throughout Mexico. Each of these blogs has allready announced its contribution to this coverage. The blogs included on this coverage are:
* Tres Punto Cero
* Enigmatario
* goleeck.enmonterrey
* Isopixel
* Kuro/Jorge Cocompech
* WOM
* kikEBloGG!!
* Entretres
* MoNo Blog
* Chilanga Banda
* México 2006
* Hernando y la Silla
* El Noveno Colectivo: Nueve 99 / Real
* Discretas Identidades
* León Felipe Sánchez
* Vuelta de Hoja
* Fábrica de Polvo…Para ensuciarse un poco
* Radio Toloache
* Portal Ciudadano
* Los Hijos de Nuestra Mente
* Un mono ocupado
* Tecamachalco El Portal
* Efekto Magazine
* *La mano roja
* |xero||||||
* Mediatizando
* It's been a Jiff's day ESIMIO incomprendido casi EGRESADO
* Juego de Mapaches
* EBRMX
* Vökuró
* [winiberto]
* Visor Electoral
* Benditos
* lindoro.net
* [izucar.com.mx]
* Erat Hora
* idealabs
* Here comes the sun