Key Facts About Mexico's General Elections Yang Lina - Xinhua
go to original July 1, 2012

MEXICO CITY - Some 80 million Mexicans will vote on Sunday for the country's next president, along with 500 deputies and 128 senators in the parliament.

Sunday's elections will take place amid a social and political crisis, marred by allegations of corruption, increasing violence, and few achievements in the fight against poverty.

Following are some key facts about the polls in Mexico.

All Mexican citizens aged above 18 are eligible to vote. Mexicans living abroad can vote for president as long as they have completed the required legal procedures.

The elections on July 1 are considered the largest in the history of Mexico, with 2,127 positions at stake, including the president, senators and deputies of the bicameral Congress, six governors and the mayor of Mexico City.

The election authority has installed 143,151 boxes across the country and printed 82,68 million ballots for the presidential election, and the same number for both senators and federal deputies.

Poll stations open at 8:00 a.m. local time (1300 GMT) and close at 6:00 p.m.(2300 GMT) Sunday.

Local media will release the first exit polls from 8:00 p.m. Monday (0100 GMT) and Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute is expected to announce the results of a representative sample of polling stations at 11:45 p.m. (0445 GMT), but the official count will continue until next week.

Four candidates are competing for the presidency in a first-past-the-post system - the one who garners the largest number of votes wins. There is no second round of voting and no minimum percentage required for an outright win.

The candidate of the Institutional Revolution Party, Enrique Pena Nieto, leads in the latest poll with 41 percent support, followed by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party with 31 percent, and Josefina Vazquez Mota of the the ruling National Action Party with 24 percent.

Under Mexico's 1917 Constitution, the president is elected for a six-year term and cannot be re-elected. The new president will take office on Dec. 1.

Mexico's legislative power is vested in the bicameral National Congress. The Senate has 128 members, with four from each state and the federal district of Mexico City. Senators serve one six-year term.

The Federal Chamber of Deputies, directly elected every three years, has 500 seats.

Some 300,000 policemen and soldiers have been deployed across the country to ensure a smooth election. The election will also be supervised by 31,597 national observers and 696 monitors from 69 countries.

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