2000 Mexican general election

General elections were held in Mexico on Sunday, 2 July 2000. Voters went to the polls to elect a new president to serve a single six-year term, replacing President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, who was ineligible for re-election under the 1917 Constitution. The election system ran under plurality voting; 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies (300 by the first-past-the-post system and 200 by proportional representation) for three-year terms and 128 members of the Senate (three per state by first-past-the-post – two first-past-the-post seats are allocated to the party with the largest share of the vote; the remaining seat is given to the first runner-up – and 32 by proportional representation from national party lists) for six-year terms.

2000 Mexican general election

2 July 2000
Presidential election
← 1994 2006 →
Turnout	63.97%
Nominee Vicente Fox Francisco Labastida Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Party PAN PRI PRD Alliance Alliance for Change – Alliance for Mexico Popular vote 15,989,636 13,579,718 6,256,780 Percentage 43.43% 36.89% 17.00%
Results by state
President before election Ernesto Zedillo PRI Elected President Vicente Fox PAN
Senate
← 1994 2006 →
All 128 seats in the Senate of the Republic 65 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader % Seats +/– Alliance for Change Luis Felipe Bravo Mena 39.10 51 +17 PRI Dulce María Sauri Riancho 37.51 60 −16 Alliance for Mexico – 19.29 17 +2 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Chamber of Deputies
← 1997 2003 →
All 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 251 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader % Seats +/– Alliance for Change Luis Felipe Bravo Mena 39.19 224 +95 PRI Dulce María Sauri Riancho 37.75 211 −28 Alliance for Mexico – 19.12 65 −67 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

The presidential election was 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 1911, as well as the first in 71 years to defeat, with 43 percent of the vote, the then-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Internal Elections

Institutional Revolutionary Party

President Ernesto Zedillo sought to break away from the 71-year-old PRI succession ritual, so the PRI conducted an unprecedented internal process to choose its presidential candidate for the 2000 elections. The president arrived and declared, "The so-called dedazo is dead."^[4][5]

Francisco Labastida Ochoa, Humberto Roque Villanueva, Manuel Bartlett Díaz, and Roberto Madrazo Pintado were the pre-candidates. Even after the president made his statement, there was still a sense that Francisco Labastida was the most likely to become the official candidate because he was the closest to President Zedillo.^[6]

Madrazo's confrontation with Labastida during the election was notable, as was Madrazo's "challenging" stance toward Zedillo, exemplified by his campaign slogan, "Give a Madrazo to Dedazo."^[7]

On November 7, 1999, the election was held, and there were the now-famous and well-known fraudulent tactics such as the "crazy mouse," "pregnant ballot boxes," and carry-over were present.^[4][5] Nevertheless, Madrazo accepted the election's outcome and rejoined the Tabasco government following a meeting with Labastida in Los Pinos, where Zedillo intervened to stop Madrazo from breaking with the PRI. On November 20, 1999, Francisco Labastida was declared a PRI candidate. The following were the outcomes of the election on November 7th:

Candidate		%
	Francisco Labastida Ochoa	58.13
	Roberto Madrazo Pintado	30.75
	Manuel Bartlett Diaz	6.45
	Humberto Roque Villanueva	4.65

National Action Party

The former Guanajuato governor Vicente Fox Quesada entered the candidacy for president. He has been running for the presidency of the Republic as the PAN's presidential candidate since 1997. He was registered as the only pre-candidate and had to be ratified internally.^[8]

Party of the Democratic Revolution

Porfirio Muñoz Ledo and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas declared themselves interested in being candidates, a struggle began that resulted in Muñoz Ledo's dismissal from the PRD after they both expressed interest in running for office. According to Muñoz Ledo, it was inevitable that the same person would run for office a third time if there was no "true democratic process" in the PRD. Muñoz Ledo was a candidate for the PARM, and Cárdenas was designated as a candidate by the PRD bodies.^[8]

Campaign

On April 27, 2000, Vicente Fox, the PAN candidate, sent a letter containing ten points to the apostolic nuncio Leonardo Sandri and the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate, outlining the measures he pledged to take on behalf of the Catholic Church and other Christian churches should he win the presidency of the Republic. These included advocating for "respect for the right to life from the moment of conception," granting churches access to the media, granting free admission to public health centers, prisons, orphanages, and nursing homes for priests and other ministers of worship, standardizing seminary coursework with public institution coursework, in addition to giving churches a unique tax system and allowing them to deduct taxes "when they contribute to human development."^[9][10]

In this letter, the PAN candidate reaffirmed his strong religious stance and identified himself as a devout Catholic. Even though Fox had finally won the presidency, the promises he made to the churches in that letter were not kept given that the PAN failed to secure an absolute majority in the Congress of the Union.

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.^[11]

Date	Poll source	Fox PAN	Labastida PRI	Cárdenas PRD	Others	Sample size	Ref.
November 1999	Mund Opinion	39%	43%	18%	0%	N/A	^[12]
	Indermec	44%	39%	16%	0%	N/A
	GEA	38%	41.8%	16.5%	3.7%	1200
	Reforma	33.3%	53.1%	9.9%	3.7%	1542
	El Universal	33.8%	46.2%	11.7%	8.3%	1537
	CEO	37%	47%	11%	4%	1500
December 1999	Pearson (PRI)	34%	47%	13%	6%	1647
	El Universal	39.2%	47.1%	12.5%	1.2%	1475
	Milenio	37.8%	42.2%	17.8%	2.2%	1006
January 2000	CEPROSEPP	32%	51%	11%	6%	1510
	Reforma	38.6%	48.2%	12.0%	1.2%	1544
	GAUSCC (PAN)	39%	45%	14%	2%	20 866
	Pearson (PRI)	36.7%	49.7%	11.9%	1.7%	1678
	GAUSSC (PAN)	42.4%	43.5%	13.0%	1.1%	1500
February 2000	Milenio	41.1%	42.2%	14.5%	2.2%	1200
	CEPROSEPP	32.4%	45.5%	16.1%	6.0%	1346
	GEA	44%	36%	18%	2%	1113
	Technomgmt.	34.5%	45.3%	17.2%	3.0%	2697
	El Universal	38.8%	41.8%	15.7%	3.7%	1438
	Reforma	38.6%	47.0%	13.2%	1.2%	1510
	Reforma	37.8%	50.0%	11.0%	1.2%	2397
	Mund Opinion	35.7%	40.5%	22.6%	1.2%	1182
March 2000	CEPROSEPP	31.8%	46.1%	17.0%	5.1%	1322
	Pearson (PRI)	33.4%	51.6%	13.6%	1.5%	1127
	Milenio	39.3%	41.6%	16.9%	2.2%	1200
	El Universal	39.7%	45.0%	12.7%	2.6%	1438
	Reforma	38.6%	47.0%	13.3%	1.2%	1533
	GEA	43.3%	38.8%	16.5%	1.4%	1200
	Technomgmt.	32.3%	47.9%	17.0%	2.8%	N/A
April 2000	CEPROSEPP	31.2%	45.7%	17.6%	5.5%	N/A
	GAUSSC	41.4%	46.0%	12.3%	0.3%	1500
	Technomgmt.	32.7%	47.4%	17.7%	2.2%	N/A
	Reforma	42%	45%	12%	1%	1647
	Quantum	36.9%	50.4%	10.0%	2.7%	1920
	El Universal	39.2%	42.2%	14.0%	4.5%	1074
	Reuters/Zogby	46.3%	41.6%	9.3%	2.8%	1062
May 2000	Pearson (PRI)	39%	45%	12%	4%	1590
	Technomgmt.	39.1%	45.5%	12.5%	2.9%	8000
	Reforma	40%	42%	16%	2%	1547
	GEA	43.6%	38.6%	16.4%	1.4%	N/A
	El Universal	42.2%	35.9%	16.2%	5.7%	1787
	Milenio	36%	43%	17%	4%	2005
	CEO	39.0%	42.7%	15.1%	3.2%	2450
June 2000	Alduncin	41%	35%	20%	4%	2095
	Alduncin	41%	35%	20%	4%	2095
	CEO	39%	43%	15%	3%	2423
	ARCOP	43%	38%	17%	3%	1400
	Fishers	36%	42%	19%	3%	2750
	GEA	39%	38%	19%	3%	2287
	Mund/Dalla	36%	37%	27%	0%	1362
	Reforma	39%	42%	16%	3%	1545
	Reuters	41%	44%	15%	1%	1330
	CM Político	38%	41%	18%	3%	1800
	D. Watch	41%	36%	20%	3%	1542
	Pearson	39%	43%	15%	3%	1309
	Milenio/Nielsen	36%	42%	16%	6%	N/A	^[13]

Conduct

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.^{[citation needed]}

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 Dallas-based organization called Democracy Watch with the support of the Vicente Fox campaign^{[citation needed]}, who were concerned about possible election fraud.

Numerous electoral reforms implemented after the widely-derided and fraudulent 1988 election opened up 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.^{[citation needed]}

Results

President

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Vicente Fox	National Action Party	15,989,636	43.43
	Francisco Labastida	Institutional Revolutionary Party	13,579,718	36.89
	Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas	Party of the Democratic Revolution	6,256,780	17.00
	Gilberto Rincón Gallardo	Social Democracy	592,381	1.61
	Manuel Camacho Solís	Democratic Center Party of Mexico	206,589	0.56
	Porfirio Muñoz Ledo	Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution	156,896	0.43
Other candidates			31,461	0.09
Total			36,813,461	100.00
Valid votes			36,813,461	97.90
Invalid/blank votes			788,157	2.10
Total votes			37,601,618	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			58,782,737	63.97
Source: Nohlen,

By state

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
Source:

Voter demographics

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
Source: Reforma.^[14]

Senate

Party		Party-list			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Alliance for Change	14,339,963	39.10	13	14,208,973	39.00	38	51	+17
	Institutional Revolutionary Party	13,755,787	37.51	13	13,699,799	37.60	47	60	–16
	Alliance for Mexico	7,072,994	19.29	6	7,027,944	19.29	11	17	+2
	Social Democracy	676,388	1.84	0	669,725	1.84	0	0	New
	Democratic Center Party of Mexico	523,569	1.43	0	521,178	1.43	0	0	New
	Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution	276,109	0.75	0	275,051	0.75	0	0	New
	Non-registered candidates	30,892	0.08	0	31,079	0.09	0	0	0
Total		36,675,702	100.00	32	36,433,749	100.00	96	128	0
Valid votes		36,675,702	97.72		36,433,749	97.71
Invalid/blank votes		854,459	2.28		852,106	2.29
Total votes		37,530,161	100.00		37,285,855	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		58,782,737	63.85		58,782,737	63.43
Source: Nohlen, IFES

Chamber of Deputies

Party		Party-list			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Alliance for Change	14,323,649	39.19	81	14,212,476	39.14	143	224	+95
	Institutional Revolutionary Party	13,800,306	37.75	79	13,720,453	37.79	132	211	–28
	Alliance for Mexico	6,990,143	19.12	40	6,948,204	19.14	25	65	–67
	Social Democracy	703,532	1.92	0	698,683	1.92	0	0	New
	Democratic Center Party of Mexico	430,812	1.18	0	428,577	1.18	0	0	New
	Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution	273,615	0.75	0	272,425	0.75	0	0	New
	Non-registered candidates	30,452	0.08	0	30,380	0.08	0	0	0
Total		36,552,509	100.00	200	36,311,198	100.00	300	500	0
Valid votes		36,552,509	97.68		36,311,198	97.68
Invalid/blank votes		868,516	2.32		863,262	2.32
Total votes		37,421,025	100.00		37,174,460	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		58,782,737	63.66		58,782,737	63.24
Source: Nohlen, TE

Campaign items (image gallery)

•  
  Fox campaign items.
•  
  Cárdenas and Fox campaign buttons.
•  
  Labastida campaign buttons.
•  
  Fox campaign watches.
•  
  Fox campaign bottles
•  
  Camacho Solís and Bartlett (as PRI presidential pre-candidate) campaign buttons.

References

1. Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p475 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
2. Nohlen, p470
3. Nohlen, p455
4. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León 5/5. Retrieved 13 February 2024 – via YouTube.
5. "«Madrazo terminó su representación, abrazó a Labastida y regresó a Tabasco»". Proceso. 27 November 1999.
6. "nos-vemos-en-el-2000". www.proceso.com.mx. 13 November 1999.
7. "Dinero ilícito, fraudes e impunidad, detrás de la rebelión de Roberto Madrazo". Proceso. 7 August 1999.
8. México: La Historia de su democracia. 10 - Rumbo al 200 (1997 2000). Retrieved 13 February 2024 – via YouTube.
9. "pol1". www.jornada.com.mx. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
10. "ESTADO-IGLESIA NUEVA RELACIÓN ?Debe Fox actuar como hombre de Estado y no como católico?". El Universal (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 February 2024.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. Klesner, Joseph L. (March 2001). "The End of Mexico's One-Party Regime". PS: Political Science and Politics. 34 (1): 110. doi:10.1017/S1049096501000166. JSTOR 1350318. S2CID 153947777.