Despite a few isolated incidents, election day in Jalisco went off smoothly, with “nothing out of the ordinary” to report, according to Jalisco Electoral Institute (IEPC) President Carlos Manuel Rodriguez. Police arrested 40 people for “administrative violations” and most were subsequently released on bail.
The fireworks came after the polls closed Sunday with the realization that the political landscape in Jalisco had changed forever – no more so than in metropolitan Guadalajara.
Landslide victories in the key mayoral races of Guadalajara and Zapopan, as well as huge gains in the state congressional and federal deputy elections, underlined the emergence of the left-of-center Citizen’s Movement (MC) – characterized by its bright orange eagle/snake logo – as a major political force in the state (see story page 7). Meanwhile, electoral authorities this week began a recount in Tlaquepaque, where the MC led the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) by less than 1,500 votes after Sunday vote.
The MC not only fared well in Guadalajara but also in the larger provincial towns, taking the mayors’ contests in Jocotepec, Ciudad Guzman, Puerto Vallarta, Zapotlanejo, Ocotlan and Tepatitlan, and coming a close second in Chapala.
It was a bittersweet day for the ruling PRI, which managed to hold on to its majority in the federal Chamber of Deputies but felt the full force of voters’ discontent in Jalisco.
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