Mexican presidential front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto built his campaign on the promise that his once-dominant party has evolved and can rise above a history of corruption and cronyism. In four days, voters probably will give him the chance to prove it.
Polls show Pena Nieto leading his nearest rival by more than 10 percentage points ahead of the July 1 vote as he seeks to propel the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to victory for the first time since 1994. The PRI ruled alone for 71 years until 2000, and Pena Nieto has faced attacks from rivals and protests warning that he’ll erode civil liberties and revive corruption that thrived under the previous regime.
