PRI Leader Enrique Peña Nieto elected the New President of Mexico

4th July 2012

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) leader Enrique Peña Nieto was elected the new President of Mexico on 2 July 2012. In the Presidential Election held on 1 July 2012, Enrique Peña Nieto beat Party of the Democratic Revolution candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador.  Of the total 98 percent votes counted, Pena Nieto bagged 38 percent votes, while former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador got 31 percent votes. Nieto succeeded Felipe Calderón on the top most position of the country.

Enrique Peña Nieto, 45, the PRI leader, was earlier the governor of the State of Mexico from 2005 to 2011. The Institutional Revolutionary Party had ruled Mexico for nearly 71 years, before being voted out of power in 2000 presidential elections.

Under the Mexican Constitution, the president is the head of both the state and the government. He is also the Supreme Commander of the Mexican armed forces. The Latin American nation holds Presidential elections every six years since 1934 (earlier the set period was 4 years). The president in the country is elected through direct and universal adult franchise system, where the candidate who secures maximum number of votes is declared winner. The constitution of the country does not provide any runoff election.