( - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
You'd think with all the hand-wringing over immigration, the media would have paid a bit more attention to Mexico's presidential election. Given that the Mexican Constitution prevents President Vincente Fox from seeking a second term, and the once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party's continued collapse, this year's election was a hard-fought contest between the nominee of Fox's center-right National Action Party, Felipe Calderon, and former Mexico City Mayor Lopez Obrador of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party.
Pre-election polls were inconsistent, but all indicated a very tight race. Those predictions have been borne out by the unofficial tallies that have come in since polls closed late yesterday evening. Early results, including ballots from abroad, heavily favored Calderon, but as precinct totals poured in, the margin quickly closed. With 51% of the vote counted, Calderon was leading with 37.93% to Obrador's 35.85% -- a 2.1% margin. As more results were reported, Calderon's lead shrank to 0.9% of the vote (37.2% to 36.3%) with 73% counted.
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