Vote may move Mexico to the left

MEXICANS were flocking to the polls yesterday to decide whether to elect a free-spending leftist who pledges to put the poor first or a conservative career politician who says private investment and free markets are the road to prosperity.

The presidential election is the first since Vicente Fox’s stunning victory in 2000 ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. It will determine whether Mexico becomes the latest Latin American country to move to the left.

Polls predict a close race between conservative Felipe Calderon of Mr Fox’s party and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor.

Officials hoped to announce a winner within hours of the polls closing at 8pm last night. But they cautioned they would wait if the race was too close.

The election capped months of mudslinging and angry rhetoric that laid bare a broad divide between Mexico’s rich and poor. Mr Obrador accused Mr Calderon of catering to the rich, who in turn warned that his rival would put at risk the low-interest loans that helped swell the middle-class during Mr Fox’s tenure.