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PAN Party Keeps Baja Governor’s Office
Mexico’s conservative PAN party held on to the governor’s seat in Baja California. The final vote count came nearly a week after the election.
PAN candidate Francisco Vega de Lamadrid, known as “Kiko,” will be the next governor of Baja California. His main opponent, Fernando Castro Trenti of the PRI party, conceded defeat on over the weekend.
A rapid vote count immediately following the July 7 elections correctly anticipated these results. But a slight glitch in the computer system sparked calls for a full recount.
The conservative PAN party has held the governor’s seat in Baja California for 24 years.
Electoral authorities also finished counting votes for mayor in Baja California’s five municipalities, and some of them held worse news for the PAN. Jorge Astiazarán of the PRI will be the next mayor of Tijuana.
The relative success of the PAN in Baja California has been one of the few challenges to PRI power in Mexico. The PRI ruled Mexico for nearly 70 years at the national level until it lost the presidency in 2,000 to PAN candidate Vicente Fox.
