Voting ends in election that tests Mexico’s ruling party

ECATEPEC, Mexico (AP) – Voters in Mexico’s most populous state cast ballots Sunday that could hand the ruling party a much-needed boost ahead of next year’s presidential elections or a potentially devastating blow by throwing off its uninterrupted 88-year local rule.

Voting centers closed in the evening amid dueling accusations of vote buying, complaints that some voters received intimidating telephone calls warning them not to cast ballots and reports of bloody pig heads being left outside opposition party offices.

Polls gave the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party of President Enrique Pena Nieto a slight edge in the closing days of the Mexico State campaign, but the result would largely depend on which party got its backers to vote and the possibility of party switching by voters whose priority was preventing a PRI victory.

Some, like shopkeeper Ruben Sanchez Mendoza, 47, were fed up with almost 90 years of uninterrupted rule in the state by the PRI. Sanchez Mendoza said he voted for Delfina Gomez, the candidate of the leftist Morena party.

“We are tired of so much corruption, corrupt politicians, corrupt police,” Sanchez Mendoza said. “The truth is, without a change, I don’t see a future for ourselves or our children.”

At a polling station nearby, 65-year-old retiree Maria Concepcion Sanchez Morales said she was voting for the PRI despite claims by Morena that the ruling party gave away “rotten beans” to buy votes.

“They say they give out rotten beans, but at least they give out beans,” said Sanchez Morales. “Let’s not lie: All the benefit programs come from the PRI.”

Both residents of the sprawling suburb of Ecatepec agreed that crime such as widespread robberies in the street and aboard public buses was the most pressing issue.

“They rob, they steal, at any time of the day or night,” Sanchez Morales complained.

Near the polling stations, neighbors had strung a banner across one street reading: “Thief, if we catch you, we’re not going to turn you over to police. We will lynch you.”