Mexico: Institutional Revolutionary Party wins midterm elections

The results of the midterm primary elections in Mexico announced on June 8 showed that the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of President Enrique Peña Nieto won the election held on June 7.

President Enrique Peña Nieto's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won. (Source: bloomberg)

The PRI party maintained its slim majority in the House of Representatives, despite protests and a sharp drop in government approval ratings.

According to Mexico's National Electoral Institute, the PRI won between 29.87 and 30.85 percent of the vote, followed by the National Action Party (PAN) with between 21.47 and 22.7 percent of the vote.

The midterm elections, which elect 500 seats in the House of Representatives, nine of 31 governors and hundreds of mayors and local officials, are seen as a major test for President Nieto's government.

In the 2012 election, the PRI party in coalition with the Green Party and the New Alliance party (PANAL) received 42% of the vote and won 251 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives.

The June 7 election was marred by a wave of violence despite thousands of federal soldiers and police deployed at polling stations.

In several restive southern states such as Guerrero, Chiapas and Oaxaca, violent protesters burned ballot boxes, election documents and tables.

Guerrero State is home to the Teachers College where the 43 missing students studied. The protesters, mostly teachers, are demanding higher salaries, an end to teacher certification exams, and an investigation into the disappearance of the 43 students since September 2014, despite federal prosecutors eventually concluding that they were murdered by a drug gang./.

(According to VNA)