February 6, 1999
Web posted at: 8:23 p.m. EST (0123 GMT)

CHILPANCINGO, Mexico (CNN) -- Voters in two Pacific Coast Mexican states go to the polls Sunday to pick new governors, with a left-wing opposition party in position to wrest both posts away from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

In Guerrero, which boasts the glitzy resorts of Acapulco and Ixtapa, polls show Felix Salgado of the leftist Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD) even with PRI's Rene Juarez.

Up the coast in sparsely populated Baja California Sur, the PRD's Leonel Cota and PRI's Antonio Manriquez were in a tight race, with one poll showing Cota, the mayor of La Paz, with a slight lead.

"We are going to win the state. We are going to stop this fraud that has been observed from the desperation of the old PRI -- this political group which I believe has no ideological values, only economic interests," said Cota, a longtime PRI leader who bolted the party after losing a primary to Manriquez.

Candidates from Mexico's other major party, the conservative National Action Party (PAN), are not factors in either race.

PRD's growing support

Victories by the PRD in Guerrero and Baja California Sur would be a major boost ahead of Mexico's 2000 presidential race. The party captured the Mexico City mayoral race in 1997 and, aided by PRI divisions, governorships in Tlaxcala and Zacatecas in 1998. Less than two years ago, it trailed both the PRI and PAN in voting in Baja California Sur.

However, the fortunes of the PRI -- which has ruled Mexico for the last seven decades but has seen its grip loosened in recent years -- have been improving recently, with victories in seven of the 10 gubernatorial races contested during the past year. Those wins included wresting away the governorship in the PAN stronghold of Chihuahua.

Guerrero is home to an underground Marxist rebel movement, the Popular Revolutionary Army, as well drug smugglers, prompting fears of vote fraud or violence if the ballot is close.

On Saturday, banners in the festive colors of the various political parties brightened the streets of the state capital, Chilpancingo. Vans and taxis sported political slogans in their windows, while shopkeepers displayed posters from the parties of their choice.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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