A local election was held in the

Mexican state A Mexican State (), officially the Free and Sovereign State (), is a constituent federative entity of Mexico according to the Constitution of Mexico. Currently there are 31 states, each with its own constitution, government, state governor, a ...

Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...

on Sunday, August 20, 2006. Voters went to the polls to elect, on the local level, a new

Governor of Chiapas The Governor of Chiapas is the chief executive of the Mexican state of Chiapas. The state constitution stipulates a term of 6 years, to which governors can only be elected once. It also specifies the qualifications for becoming governor: a Mexic ...

to serve a six-year term.

Gubernatorial election

Five candidates registered as candidates to fight the election. However, on August 10, Francisco Rojas Toledo of the National Action Party and

Emilio Zebadúa Emilio Zebadúa González (January 13, 1961 - ) is a Mexican politician who served as ''Consejero Electoral'' of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE). Personal life and education Zebadúa studied law at the National Autonomous University of Mexi ...

of New Alliance announced that they were withdrawing from the election and throwing their support behind the

Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party (, , PRI) is a List of political parties in Mexico, political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party (, PNR), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (, PRM) and fin ...

José Antonio Aguilar Bodegas José Antonio Aguilar Bodegas (born 28 December 1949) is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He was the candidate of the ''Alianza por Chiapas'' (a coalition of the PRI and the PVEM) for governor of ...

in order to present a united front to prevent

Juan José Sabines Guerrero Juan José Sabines Guerrero (born August 20, 1968) is a Mexican politician, son of the former Governor of Chiapas, Juan Sabines Gutiérrez and nephew of the writer Jaime Sabines. Until, 2006 he was member of the Institutional Revolutionary Par ...

, representing the

Alliance for the Good of All The Coalition for the Good of All () was a left-wing coalition created by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Convergence and the Labor Party (PT) to support Andrés Manuel López Obrador as a candidate for the presidency of Mexico in ...

and a protégé of incumbent governor Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, from winning. Rojas and Zebadúa called on their supporters to vote for Aguilar Bodegas instead; however, their names still appeared on the ballot papers and votes were cast for both — in amounts greater than the difference between the two leading candidates. The final result was known until the state Electoral Institute has resolved the large number of result review filings that were lodged, chiefly by the PRI-led Alliance for Chiapas.

References

{{reflist

External links

Electoral Institute of Chiapas websitePREP

Election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

Political scandals in Mexico Chiapas elections