Elections in Mexico: polls must open after campaign marked by violence

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AFP

Sunday's presidential, legislative and local elections are expected to take place in Mexico

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, former mayor of Mexico City, who is committed to fighting corruption.

If he wins, he will oust both parties that ruled Mexico for nearly a century.

However, the campaign was marked by the worst political violence in the country for decades

. According to Will Grant, BBC correspondent in Mexico, many voters want to replace the government of incumbent President Enrique Peña Nieto. They are angry at Mexico's lethargic economy as well as widespread corruption and crime, he adds.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador – often referred to by his initials Amlo – has made corruption the hub of his campaign, promising to improve wages. pensions by removing creeping abuses from the state and political and commercial elites.

million. Lopez Obrador, 64, has been vice president in the last two elections and if he wins this time he will end the dominance of the two parties that ruled Mexico for decades – the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Party Action Party (PAN).

He referred to them as part of the same "power mafia", putting forward a party-led coalition led by his party, Morena, as a chance to break radically with

His most rival close seems to be PAN's Ricardo Anaya who runs a center-right coalition. He tried to paint Mr. Lopez Obrador as a populist and maverick who can not be trusted to lead the economy.

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Reuters

Former Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade is a candidate for the ruling PRI party.

In addition to a new president, the Mexican will vote for 128 senators and 500 deputies in Congress as well as for local and national authorities. In all, 88 million people will have the right to vote.

Mexico is the second largest economy in Latin America and a major exporter of oil. However, oil prices fell and the Mexican currency, the peso, fell against the dollar.

More than 40% of the population lives in poverty and high levels of corruption and violence have led some businesses to withdraw. the most affected areas.

The period leading up to Sunday's election was one of the worst in our memory, according to our correspondent, as criminal groups try to control local politics.

More than 130 candidates and political workers were killed all over the country Since the campaign began in September.

On Saturday, a reporter was shot dead in a bar in the village of Saban in the state of Quintana Roo, in the south of the country, officials said. Mexico has the reputation of being one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.