Assassinated Left-Wing Candidate Wins Local Election in Mexico

Deceased leftist candidate Enrique Hernandez won the local elections in the municipality of Yurecuaro, in Mexico’s Michoacan state, according to results released Wednesday.

Representing the National Regeneration Movement (commonly referred to as Morena), Hernandez received 39 percent of the vote in the municipality during Sunday's elections. Both his photograph and name appeared on the ballot, even though he was killed three weeks earlier.

Hernandez was gunned down during a rally in central Yurecuaro on May 14 while campaigning for the elections. He was one of eight electoral candidates killed nationwide, in what was described by many Mexicans as the most violent vote in years. Dozens of ordinary Mexicans were killed or kidnapped in political violence, with 21 campaign-related killings, as armed groups battled to sway the results of the vote.

Despite calls for a boycott, Mexico's latest midterms had the highest turnout registered in years at around 48 percent. The elections were also considered a test of President Enrique Peña Nieto's popularity, given the widespread social unrest, corruption scandals, a lackluster economy and human rights concerns, which have been prominent during his three-year-old government.

Voting was particularly tense in Michoacan state, which has been mired in violence between criminal gangs and armed vigilantes.

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In Yurecuaro, Hernandez will be replaced by his campaign deputy, Marco Antonio Gonzalez, who is also a member of Morena.

Sunday's elections were the first time Morena ran in a national vote, but the party has already secured victory in areas representing more than 8 million people and will administer more than US$550 million annually. It will oversee the country's fifth economy, the Cuauhtemoc electoral district, which generates about 21 percent of Mexico’s GDP and has nearly 2.5 million people. Morena will also govern in Tlalpan, Xochimilco and Tlahuac, which are considered rural, and Azcapotzalco which is an important industrial sector in Mexico City

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