Elections look tough for Mexico's PAN

MERIDA, Mexico, May 16 (UPI) -- Mexicans went to the polls Sunday in the southern state of Yucatan in local elections expected to favor the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Pre-election polls showed the PRI poised to nearly sweep the conservative National Action Party of Mexican President Felipe Calderon in elections for 106 mayors and 25 state legislators, The Los Angeles Times reported. That includes Merida, the old colonial capital, where Calderon's PAN party has held power for 20 years.

"If (PAN) loses Merida, it will be a serious blow," Mexico City political pollster Jorge Buedia told the Times. The PRI was leading in polls for elections for governor in all 12 Mexican states set to hold elections July 4.

PRI has been staging a comeback in local and state elections after losing the presidency in 2000 and 2006.

Jose Mario Guajardo, a mayoral candidate of the conservative ruling party, was shot to death in Valle Hermoso in drug-violence plagued northern Mexico Thursday. Organized drug traffickers are suspected in the killing.