MEXICO-ELECTIONS/VIOLENCE Mexican protesters set fire to voting material ahead of regional elections

Record ID: 149985

  • Title: MEXICO-ELECTIONS/VIOLENCE Mexican protesters set fire to voting material ahead of regional elections
  • Date: 3rd June 2015
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (JUNE 2, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF HEADQUARTERS FOR MEXICAN DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTIONARY PARTY (PRD) GENERAL OF NEWS CONFERENCE LED BY MEXICO'S PRD CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR OF GUERRERO STATE, BEATRIZ MOJICA (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEXICO'S PRD CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR OF GUERRERO STATE, BEATRIZ MOJICA, SAYING:
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACQXH71RSMKAETR5QYR4MCO5TS
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Electoral ballots and other materials were set aflame in the tense southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero Monday (June 1) night ahead of Sunday's mid-term elections.
    Internal and gang violence has claimed more than 100,000 lives in Mexico since 2007, and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's efforts to focus on economic development have been sidelined by the violence.
    On Sunday, Pena Nieto faces his first national vote since winning the presidency in 2012. The lower house, nine governorships and various state legislatures are up for grabs.
    In one particularly high-profile case of violence last September, 43 student teachers in Guerrero went missing, resulting in uprisings from protesters demanding answers.
    Last week, hundreds of people marched in Mexico City, eight months after the abduction. The demonstrators set fire to political materials to show their contempt for all political parties, as they await answers.
    Regardless, Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is in the lead, according to a Consulta Mitofsky poll released on Tuesday, potentially returning to President Enrique Pena Nieto his razor-thin lower house majority.
    The leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) gained 17 percent support, while its recently formed offshoot Morena, led by ex-presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with 10 percent, the poll found.
    The PRD's gubernatorial candidate in Guerrero convened a news conference to promote a peaceful vote on Sunday.
    "The demand that the local and federal authorities guarantee the elections take place in peace, in a state of calm which implies that the National Electoral Institute (INE) in its role takes the proper provisions along with the federal and state governments (to ensure calm), which we hope becomes a reality so that the people can go out and vote," said Beatriz Mojica.
    She sounded a get-out-the-vote call to all Mexicans in the hope of unseating the status quo.
    "The only ones who benefit from a no-vote is the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party). We in the PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party), in the PT (Labour Party), in our de facto left-leaning coalition, we make a call to all people to go out and vote and not be intimidated by isolated events," said Mojica.
    There were also reports of attacks on ballot boxes in the restive southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, where teachers have joined movements against education reforms proposed by Pena Nieto.
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