Yesterday's mid-term elections in Mexico resulted in the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and its allies obtaining a working majority in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of congress. Election Day was marred by violence, mainly in the southern states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, where officials had to close 600 polling stations. To counter protests and threats by forces calling for a boycott of the elections, the government deployed federal police and the military to the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Michoacan, and Chiapas. Abstentionism was over 50% across the country, and polls indicate that 60% of the population feels the political parties have no legitimacy. For the first time in the country's history an independent candidate won a gubernatorial race, with Jaime Rodriguez sailing to victory in the northern state of Nuevo Leon. Clayton Conn reports from Oaxaca. teleSUR
