2000 Mexican general election
General elections were held in Mexico on Sunday, July 2, 2000.
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Turnout | 63.97% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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States won by the presidential candidates (blue for Fox, green for Labastida and yellow for Cárdenas) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Voters went to the polls to elect:
- A new President of the Republic to serve a six-year term, replacing then Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León (ineligible for re-election under the 1917 Constitution), the election system is plurality voting.
- 500 members (300 by the first-past-the-post system and 200 by proportional representation) to serve for a three-year term in the Chamber of Deputies.
- 128 members (three per state by first-past-the-post and 32 by proportional representation from national party lists) to serve six-year terms in the Senate. In each state, two first-past-the-post seats are allocated to the party with the largest share of the vote, and the remaining seat is given to the first runner-up.
The presidential elections were won by Vicente Fox of the Alliance for Change, who received 43.4% of the vote,[1] the first time the opposition had won an election since the Mexican Revolution. In the Congressional elections the Alliance for Change emerged as the largest faction in the Chamber of Deputies with 224 of the 500 seats, whilst the Institutional Revolutionary Party remained the largest faction in the Senate with 60 of the 128 seats in the Senate.[2] Voter turnout was between 63 and 64% in the elections.[3]
This historically significant election made Fox the first president elected from an opposition party since Francisco I. Madero in 1910, and the first one in 71 years to defeat, with 42 percent of the vote, the then-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
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Presidential election
Some isolated incidents of irregularities and problems were reported. For example, one irregularity in the southern state of Campeche involved the European Union electoral observer Rocco Buttiglione and could have created problems for President Ernesto Zedillo had the PRI candidate won. Overall, however, electoral observers identified little evidence that those incidents were centrally coordinated (as opposed to led by local PRI officials), and critics concluded that those irregularities which did occur did not materially alter the outcome of the presidential vote, which had been more definitive than expected.
Civic organizations fielded more than 80,000 trained electoral observers, foreign observers were invited to witness the process, and numerous "quick count" operations and exit polls (not all of them independent) validated the official vote tabulation. The largest exit poll was organized by the U.S. firm Penn, Schoen & Berland, financed by a hitherto obscure outfit in Dallas called Democracy Watch. It emerged later that Democracy Watch had effectively been created by Vicente Fox campaign insiders to help prevent the success of any expected election fraud.
Numerous electoral reforms implemented since 1989 aided in the opening of the Mexican political system, and since then opposition parties have made historic gains in elections at all levels. The chief electoral concerns shifted from outright fraud to campaign fairness issues and, between 1995 and 1996, the political parties negotiated constitutional amendments to address these issues. The legislation implemented included major points of consensus that had been worked out with the opposition parties. Under the new laws, public financing predominated over private contributions to political parties, procedures for auditing parties were tightened, and the authority and independence of the electoral institutions were strengthened. The court system was also given greatly expanded authority to hear civil rights cases on electoral matters brought by individuals or groups. In short, the extensive reform efforts of the 1990s "leveled the playing field" for the parties.
Opinion polls
PRI candidate Francisco Labastida led in nearly all the polls throughout the first months of the campaign, although in the final two months his lead grew smaller; on the other hand, PAN candidate Vicente Fox was at second place in most of the polls, but in May and June his percentage of supporters increased and he led in many of the final polls.
Given that the overwhelming majority of the polls failed to predict Fox's victory and instead had indicated that Labastida would win by comfortable margins, it has been asserted that many of those polled lied about their preferences, fearing that if they stated support for an opposition party, they would be stripped by the PRI of the government assistance programs they were receiving. Indeed, the Reforma newspaper, which had predicted a Labastida victory in all of the polls they published during the campaign, attributed their mistake to the so-called fear factor.[4]
Poll source | Date | Fox PAN |
Labastida PRI |
Cárdenas PRD |
Others |
Sample size |
Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mund Opinion | November 1999 | 39% | 43% | 18% | 0% | N/A | [5] |
Indermec | November 1999 | 44% | 39% | 16% | 0% | N/A | |
GEA | November 1999 | 38% | 41.8% | 16.5% | 3.7% | 1200 | |
Reforma | November 1999 | 33.3% | 53.1% | 9.9% | 3.7% | 1542 | |
El Universal | November 1999 | 33.8% | 46.2% | 11.7% | 8.3% | 1537 | |
CEO | November 1999 | 37% | 47% | 11% | 4% | 1500 | |
Pearson (PRI) | December 1999 | 34% | 47% | 13% | 6% | 1647 | |
El Universal | December 1999 | 39.2% | 47.1% | 12.5% | 1.2% | 1475 | |
Milenio | December 1999 | 37.8% | 42.2% | 17.8% | 2.2% | 1006 | |
CEPROSEPP | January 2000 | 32% | 51% | 11% | 6% | 1510 | |
Reforma | January 2000 | 38.6% | 48.2% | 12.0% | 1.2% | 1544 | |
GAUSCC (PAN) | January 2000 | 39% | 45% | 14% | 2% | 20 866 | |
Pearson (PRI) | January 2000 | 36.7% | 49.7% | 11.9% | 1.7% | 1678 | |
GAUSSC (PAN) | January 2000 | 42.4% | 43.5% | 13.0% | 1.1% | 1500 | |
Milenio | February 2000 | 41.1% | 42.2% | 14.5% | 2.2% | 1200 | |
CEPROSEPP | February 2000 | 32.4% | 45.5% | 16.1% | 6.0% | 1346 | |
GEA | February 2000 | 44% | 36% | 18% | 2% | 1113 | |
Technomgmt. | February 2000 | 34.5% | 45.3% | 17.2% | 3.0% | 2697 | |
El Universal | February 2000 | 38.8% | 41.8% | 15.7% | 3.7% | 1438 | |
Reforma | February 2000 | 38.6% | 47.0% | 13.2% | 1.2% | 1510 | |
Reforma | February 2000 | 37.8% | 50.0% | 11.0% | 1.2% | 2397 | |
Mund Opinion | February 2000 | 35.7% | 40.5% | 22.6% | 1.2% | 1182 | |
CEPROSEPP | March 2000 | 31.8% | 46.1% | 17.0% | 5.1% | 1322 | |
Pearson (PRI) | March 2000 | 33.4% | 51.6% | 13.6% | 1.5% | 1127 | |
Milenio | March 2000 | 39.3% | 41.6% | 16.9% | 2.2% | 1200 | |
El Universal | March 2000 | 39.7% | 45.0% | 12.7% | 2.6% | 1438 | |
Reforma | March 2000 | 38.6% | 47.0% | 13.3% | 1.2% | 1533 | |
GEA | March 2000 | 43.3% | 38.8% | 16.5% | 1.4% | 1200 | |
Technomgmt. | March 2000 | 32.3% | 47.9% | 17.0% | 2.8% | N/A | |
CEPROSEPP | April 2000 | 31.2% | 45.7% | 17.6% | 5.5% | N/A | |
GAUSSC | April 2000 | 41.4% | 46.0% | 12.3% | 0.3% | 1500 | |
Technomgmt. | April 2000 | 32.7% | 47.4% | 17.7% | 2.2% | N/A | |
Reforma | April 2000 | 42% | 45% | 12% | 1% | 1647 | |
Quantum | April 2000 | 36.9% | 50.4% | 10.0% | 2.7% | 1920 | |
El Universal | April 2000 | 39.2% | 42.2% | 14.0% | 4.5% | 1074 | |
Reuters/Zogby | April 2000 | 46.3% | 41.6% | 9.3% | 2.8% | 1062 | |
Pearson (PRI) | May 2000 | 39% | 45% | 12% | 4% | 1590 | |
Technomgmt. | May 2000 | 39.1% | 45.5% | 12.5% | 2.9% | 8000 | |
Reforma | May 2000 | 40% | 42% | 16% | 2% | 1547 | |
GEA | May 2000 | 43.6% | 38.6% | 16.4% | 1.4% | N/A | |
El Universal | May 2000 | 42.2% | 35.9% | 16.2% | 5.7% | 1787 | |
Milenio | May 2000 | 36% | 43% | 17% | 4% | 2005 | |
CEO | May 2000 | 39.0% | 42.7% | 15.1% | 3.2% | 2450 | |
Alduncin | 12 June 2000 | 41% | 35% | 20% | 4% | 2095 | |
Alduncin | 12 June 2000 | 41% | 35% | 20% | 4% | 2095 | |
CEO | 17 June 2000 | 39% | 43% | 15% | 3% | 2423 | |
ARCOP | 18 June 2000 | 43% | 38% | 17% | 3% | 1400 | |
Fishers | 18 June 2000 | 36% | 42% | 19% | 3% | 2750 | |
GEA | 18 June 2000 | 39% | 38% | 19% | 3% | 2287 | |
Mund/Dalla | 18 June 2000 | 36% | 37% | 27% | 0% | 1362 | |
Reforma | 18 June 2000 | 39% | 42% | 16% | 3% | 1545 | |
Reuters | 18 June 2000 | 41% | 44% | 15% | 1% | 1330 | |
CM Político | 19 June 2000 | 38% | 41% | 18% | 3% | 1800 | |
D. Watch | 19 June 2000 | 41% | 36% | 20% | 3% | 1542 | |
Pearson | 19 June 2000 | 39% | 43% | 15% | 3% | 1309 | |
Milenio/Nielsen | 23 June 2000 | 36% | 42% | 16% | 6% | N/A | [6] |
Election results
Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
---|---|---|---|
Vicente Fox Quesada | National Action Party (Representing Alliance for Change) | 15,989,636 | 42.52 |
Francisco Labastida Ochoa | Institutional Revolutionary Party | 13,579,718 | 36.11 |
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano | Party of the Democratic Revolution (Representing Alliance for Mexico) | 6,256,780 | 16.64 |
Gilberto Rincón Gallardo | Social Democracy | 592,381 | 1.58 |
Manuel Camacho Solís | Party of the Democratic Center | 206,589 | 0.55 |
Porfirio Muñoz Ledo | Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution | 156,896 | 0.42 |
Other candidates | 30,461 | 0.1 | |
Invalid/blank votes | 788,157 | – | |
Total | 37,601,618 | 100 | |
Source: Nohlen |
Results by state
Based on the official results of the Federal Electoral Institute
State | Fox | Labastida | Cárdenas | Rincón | Camacho | Muñoz | Write-in | None |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aguascalientes | 202,335 | 127,134 | 26,264 | 9,467 | 2,202 | 1,389 | 83 | 6,291 |
Baja California | 429,194 | 319,477 | 77,340 | 14,562 | 3,470 | 3,080 | 507 | 14,965 |
Baja California Sur | 60,834 | 56,230 | 45,229 | 2,107 | 460 | 364 | 17 | 2,804 |
Campeche | 104,498 | 106,347 | 35,090 | 2,485 | 1,406 | 1,247 | 559 | 9,309 |
Chiapas | 288,204 | 469,392 | 272,182 | 5,340 | 4,659 | 4,063 | 1,056 | 44,551 |
Chihuahua | 549,177 | 460,931 | 76,810 | 11,569 | 4,487 | 3,166 | 609 | 21,350 |
Coahuila | 398,800 | 311,480 | 77,393 | 10,392 | 2,111 | 1,880 | 1,454 | 12,464 |
Colima | 106,445 | 81,099 | 23,313 | 3,159 | 1,028 | 542 | 39 | 4,377 |
Distrito Federal | 1,928,035 | 1,060,227 | 1,146,131 | 149,312 | 36,383 | 18,843 | 2,009 | 75,669 |
Durango | 211,361 | 222,892 | 50,592 | 6,144 | 1,579 | 1,469 | 859 | 9,294 |
Guanajuato | 1,128,780 | 517,815 | 121,489 | 18,248 | 10,800 | 8,473 | 2,873 | 49,039 |
Guerrero | 174,962 | 402,091 | 332,091 | 6,179 | 2,913 | 3,003 | 954 | 20,180 |
Hidalgo | 282,864 | 355,565 | 136,861 | 12,319 | 5,034 | 4,078 | 758 | 19,997 |
Jalisco | 1,392,535 | 941,962 | 163,269 | 45,494 | 17,567 | 11,110 | 3,287 | 48,736 |
México | 2,239,750 | 1,637,714 | 961,876 | 121,137 | 40,733 | 27,203 | 3,416 | 92,743 |
Michoacán | 419,188 | 441,871 | 543,804 | 13,058 | 7,444 | 6,404 | 2,060 | 30,448 |
Morelos | 290,639 | 193,861 | 124,368 | 12,539 | 2,916 | 3,010 | 136 | 12,296 |
Nayarit | 107,417 | 173,479 | 63,121 | 3,092 | 1,175 | 1,024 | 351 | 7,043 |
Nuevo León | 760,093 | 615,907 | 96,637 | 20,448 | 7,478 | 2,658 | 1,519 | 27,201 |
Oaxaca | 301,195 | 486,496 | 282,587 | 11,074 | 8,372 | 7,305 | 1,851 | 39,616 |
Puebla | 732,435 | 698,974 | 208,688 | 20,170 | 8,609 | 7,849 | 1,142 | 44,305 |
Querétaro | 290,977 | 192,622 | 39,629 | 10,585 | 3,768 | 8,670 | 170 | 13,849 |
Quintana Roo | 132,383 | 94,202 | 50,487 | 2,399 | 916 | 729 | 70 | 5,216 |
San Luis Potosí | 393,997 | 324,234 | 72,599 | 11,073 | 3,306 | 2,287 | 407 | 22,673 |
Sinaloa | 230,777 | 621,329 | 90,488 | 7,205 | 2,189 | 1,675 | 1,290 | 15,920 |
Sonora | 447,496 | 292,267 | 114,580 | 6,426 | 1,672 | 1,325 | 94 | 13,269 |
Tabasco | 174,840 | 269,519 | 213,983 | 5,817 | 2,599 | 1,732 | 655 | 14,036 |
Tamaulipas | 521,486 | 445,737 | 91,426 | 9,387 | 3,210 | 6,932 | 1,157 | 19,659 |
Tlaxcala | 123,880 | 127,163 | 82,073 | 5,185 | 2,508 | 1,450 | 53 | 6,639 |
Veracruz | 1,066,719 | 1,008,933 | 491,791 | 25,474 | 11,343 | 10,956 | 985 | 58,630 |
Yucatán | 328,503 | 321,392 | 27,214 | 4,258 | 1,344 | 987 | 602 | 13,127 |
Zacatecas | 169,837 | 197,336 | 117,375 | 6,277 | 2,908 | 1,993 | 439 | 12,461 |
Total | 15,989,636 | 13,579,718 | 6,256,780 | 592,381 | 206,589 | 156,896 | 31,461 | 788,157 |
Voter demographics
The 2000 presidential vote by demographic subgroup | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Demographic subgroup | Fox | Labastida | Cárdenas | Other | % of total vote | |||
Total vote | 42 | 36 | 16 | 6 | 100 | |||
Gender | ||||||||
Men | 47 | 32 | 20 | 1 | 52 | |||
Women | 43 | 40 | 14 | 3 | 48 | |||
Age | ||||||||
18-24 | 50 | 32 | 17 | 1 | 18 | |||
25-29 | 47 | 34 | 16 | 3 | 16 | |||
30-34 | 49 | 34 | 15 | 2 | 15 | |||
35-39 | 47 | 37 | 12 | 4 | 13 | |||
40-45 | 41 | 35 | 20 | 4 | 11 | |||
46-50 | 44 | 37 | 18 | 1 | 8 | |||
51-54 | 46 | 40 | 13 | 1 | 6 | |||
55-59 | 32 | 43 | 24 | 1 | 5 | |||
60+ | 35 | 42 | 22 | 1 | 8 | |||
Education | ||||||||
None | 30 | 46 | 21 | 3 | 8 | |||
Primary | 35 | 46 | 18 | 1 | 34 | |||
Secondary | 49 | 34 | 15 | 2 | 22 | |||
Preparatory | 53 | 28 | 16 | 3 | 21 | |||
University | 60 | 22 | 15 | 3 | 15 | |||
Employment | ||||||||
Public sector | 41 | 37 | 19 | 3 | 18 | |||
Private sector | 53 | 31 | 15 | 1 | 26 | |||
Self-employed | 42 | 36 | 19 | 3 | 24 | |||
Student | 59 | 19 | 17 | 5 | 5 | |||
Housewife | 41 | 43 | 15 | 1 | 25 | |||
Region | ||||||||
North | 50 | 37 | 12 | 1 | 23 | |||
Center-West | 48 | 37 | 12 | 3 | 18 | |||
Center | 43 | 34 | 20 | 3 | 35 | |||
South | 41 | 37 | 20 | 2 | 24 | |||
Congress of the Union
Senate
Party | Constituency | PR | Seats | +/- | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
Alliance for Change | 14,208,973 | 38.1 | 14,339,963 | 38.2 | 60 | -17 |
Institutional Revolutionary Party | 13,699,799 | 36.7 | 13,755,787 | 36.7 | 51 | +17 |
Alliance for Mexico | 7,027,944 | 18.9 | 7,027,994 | 18.8 | 16 | -1 |
Social Democracy | 669,725 | 1.8 | 676,388 | 1.8 | 0 | New |
Democratic Center Party | 521,178 | 1.4 | 523,569 | 1.4 | 1 | New |
Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution | 275,051 | 0.7 | 276,109 | 0.7 | 0 | New |
Non-registered candidates | 31,079 | 0.1 | 30,892 | 0.1 | 0 | – |
Invalid/blank votes | 852,106 | – | 854,459 | – | – | – |
Total | 37,285,855 | 100 | 37,534,641 | 100 | 128 | 0 |
Source: Nohlen |
Chamber of Deputies
Party | Constituency | PR | Seats | +/- | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
Alliance for Change | 14,212,476 | 38.2 | 14,323,649 | 38.2 | 224 | +95 |
Institutional Revolutionary Party | 13,720,453 | 36.9 | 13,800,306 | 36.9 | 208 | –31 |
Alliance for Mexico | 6,948,204 | 18.7 | 6,990,143 | 18.7 | 65 | –67 |
Social Democracy | 698,683 | 1.9 | 703,532 | 1.9 | 0 | New |
Democratic Center Party | 428,577 | 1.2 | 430,812 | 1.2 | 0 | New |
Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution | 272,425 | 0.7 | 273,615 | 0.7 | 0 | New |
Other parties | 30,380 | 0.1 | 30,452 | 0.1 | 0 | – |
Invalid/blank votes | 863,262 | – | 868,516 | – | – | – |
Total | 37,174,460 | 100 | 37,421,025 | 100 | 500 | 0 |
Source: Nohlen |
References
- Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p475 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
- Nohlen, p470
- Nohlen, p455
- Kuschik, Murilo (September 2000). Las encuestas y la elección del año 2000. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales. p. 8. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
- Kuschik, Murilo (September 2000). Las encuestas y la elección del año 2000. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales. p. 8. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
- Aznarez, Juan Jesus (24 June 2000). "Fox y Labastida empatan en los sondeos a una semana de las elecciones". El País. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
- Klesner, Joseph L. (March 2001). "The End of Mexico's One-Party Regime". PS: Political Science and Politics. 34 (1): 110. JSTOR 1350318.