President of Mexico

The President of United Mexican States is the head of state of Mexico. Under the Constitution, the president is also the head of government and the commander-in-chief of the Mexican army, navy, and air force.

Presidential elections

Presidential elections have been held every six years since 1934 (the constitution previously provided for a four-year mandate). However, only since the year 1994 have these elections approached an acceptable standard of democratic transparency and cleanliness.

Related Topics:
1934 - 1994

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The president is elected by direct, popular, universal suffrage. A simple plurality of all the votes cast in the country decides who becomes president and, unlike many other presidential systems, there is no second round. Current President Vicente Fox was elected with a plurality of 43% of the popular vote, whereas his predecessor Ernesto Zedillo won with a majority of 51%.

Related Topics:
Vicente Fox - Ernesto Zedillo

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As stated above, the History of Mexico has not been a peaceful one. After the fall of dictator Porfirio Díaz in 1910 because of the Mexican Revolution, there was no stable government until all the military generals united in one political party:

Related Topics:
History of Mexico - Porfirio Díaz - Mexican Revolution

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the Party of the Mexican Revolution, which later changed its name to the

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National Revolutionary Party, and later to the

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Party of the Institutional Revolution, or Partido Revolucionario Institucional.

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In order to avoid chaos, and after 20 years of bloody experience, the now PRI saw it necessary a strict internal discipline and government presence in the country, and electoral fraud became common, partly because of inadequate laws. After the country regained its peace this pattern of fraud continued, with the opposition losing every election until the later part of the 20th century. The first presidential election broadly considered legitimate was the one held in 1994, when PRI's Ernesto Zedillo took office, and in his term several reforms to ensure fairness in elections were made. Partly as a consequence of this reforms the 1997 federal congressional election saw the first opposition Chamber of Deputies ever, and the 2000 elections saw Vicente Fox of a PAN/PVEM alliance become the first opposition candidate to win an election since 1911. This historical defeat was accepted on election night by PRI in the voice of President Zedillo; while this calmed fears of violence, it also fueled questions about the role of the president in the electoral process and to whom the responsibility of conceding defeat should fall in a democratic election.

Related Topics:
1994 - Ernesto Zedillo - 1997 - Chamber of Deputies - 2000 - Vicente Fox - PAN - PVEM - 1911

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It is expected that the 2006 elections will also be clean and fair but it seems likely the PAN will lose to either the PRI or PRD.

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The role of unions in the new balance of power and future elections is documented in works like historian Enrique Krauze's Analysis of the Corporative System.

Related Topics:
Historian - Enrique Krauze

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