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Mexican general election, 1988
July 6, 1988

The general election was held in Mexico on Wednesday, July 6, 1988. Voters went to the polls to elect, on the federal level:

A new President of the Republic to serve a six-year term, replacing then Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid (ineligible for re-election under the 1917 Constitution).
500 members (300 by the first-past-the-post system and 200 by proportional representation) to serve for a three-year term in the Chamber of Deputies.
64 Senators. Members of the upper house of the Congress of the Union, 2 by each state of Mexico and the Federal District, 32 chosen in a direct way by a period of six years and 32 chosen for an extraordinary period of three years, both began September 1, 1988.

[edit] Presidential election

The 1988 elections was the unique process until then in the history of Mexico. The candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Carlos Salinas de Gortari faced for the first time a truly competitive race. His opponent, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, was a former PRI member that had resigned from the party in protest with the nomination of Salinas and the economic policy of the government of Miguel de la Madrid. Cardenas' resignation from the PRI resulted in his nomination as the presidential candidate for the left coalition, the National Democratic Front, while Manuel Clouthier was the candidate of the National Action Party. At the conclusion of the electoral process July 6, according to several versions, the first results showed Cardenas with a significant lead. Secretary of Interior, Manuel Bartlett Díaz announced, however, that the electoral results could not be given immediately due to a caída del sistema (literally, the tabulation system had collapsed). When the results were finally given, Salinas was declared the winner. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and the opposition did not recognize this result and declared the election invalid, spurring multiple mass protests that nevertheless could not prevent Salinas from being declared President-elect by the Chamber of Deputies where the PRI had a significant advantage of 20 deputies in front of the competing set and the government always maintained the legality of the elections. Salinas took possession from the presidency, but Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and the opposition, including that which later gave origin to the Party of the Democratic Revolution, but also the PAN and almost all other electoral observers, always maintained the illegality of the election.

[edit] Election results

The candidates who participated in the 1988 Presidential Election and the results which they obtained according to the official data published by the Secretary of the Interior were the following:

Party/Alliance	Candidate	Votes	Percent
Institutional Revolutionary Party	Carlos Salinas de Gortari	9,641,329	50.48
National Democratic Front (PARM, PPS, PFCRN, PMS)	Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano	5,911,133	30.95
National Action Party	Manuel de Jesús Clouthier del Rincón	3,267,159	17.11
Mexican Democratic Party	Gumersindo Magaña Negrete	199,484	1.04
Workers' Revolutionary Party	Rosario Ibarra de Piedra	80,052	0.42
Total votes		19,099,157	100.00

Source: El Universal

[edit] Legislative elections

The electoral results took to that for the first time the PRI did not obtain the three fourths of the Chamber of Deputies and barely obtained the absolute majority by 10 deputies of advantage, in addition by first time opposition senators were elected, not counting Jorge Cruickshank García who had been Senator by an alliance between the PRI and their party the PPS^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Chamber of Deputies

Party	Deputies
Institutional Revolutionary Party	260
National Democratic Front (PARM, PPS, PFCRN, PMS)	139
National Action Party	101

[edit] Senate

Party	Senators
Institutional Revolutionary Party	60
National Democratic Front (PARM, PPS, PFCRN, PMS)	4

The National Democratic Front was dissolved after the installation of the Congress, the PARM, the PPS and the PFCRN constituted its own way and the PMS and the expelled PRI members constituted the Party of the Democratic Revolution.

[edit] External links

Favorite Son: The heir of Mexico’s greatest reformer saw his election stolen and his friend murdered. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas remains the man who would be el Presidente. by Andrew Reding of the World Policy Institute
Electoral fraud, 1988 Mexican federal elections: sample burnt ballots by Andrew Reding of the World Policy Institute