Mexico’s tainted status quo faces vote of confidence

The race for the governorship in the State of Mexico, which will be decided on June 4, has resonance beyond the nation’s most populous state.

In PRI hands since the party’s birth in 1929, the State of Mexico is home turf of Enrique Peña Nieto, whose failure to curb rising crime and corruption has made him Mexico’s most unpopular president.

As such, the vote is widely seen as a referendum on his rule and a judgment on his party. Instead of being a shoo-in, Alfredo del Mazo, the 41-year-old son and grandson of State of Mexico governors and the president’s cousin, finds himself in a close race with Delfina Gómez, a working-class former teacher from the leftist Morena party, which is only three years old.

Source: Financial Times