Tabasco has a special place for the PRD - it has long been a bastion of Andrés Manuel López Obrador who twice ran for governor in extremely fraudulent elections (88 and 94) against the PRI. In 2006, the PRD also came very close to winning and was possibly cheated from its victory, though the election was also held at time )Oct 2006) when AMLO's popularity had been plummeting after his plantón sit-ins in Mexico City and ever more radicalized language, culminating in the absolutely ridiculous "Legitimate presidency."
Now, however, PRD has a big chance of winning the upcoming (July 1) election, which thanks to Mexico's electoral reform will coincide with the national election. A governor will be elected, 17 municipal presidents, and 35 local deputies. The left's candidate is Senator Arturo Núñez (ex PRI and AMLO ally), and a broad left coalition is here very natural. Yet the local election organs have now twice rejected the coalition of PRD-PT and the party formerly known as Convergencia, on what appears to be very spurious "technical" grounds, following PRI complaints to the PRI-controlled said electoral institute.
Núñez will appeal to the federal tribunal and will likely win here, but this appears just to be one sign of how much the PRI will fight this election, using any means possible, like they have in the past. The state has never been run by any party than the PRI - and much of it is thanks to its long tradition on extremely dirty tricks and rigging of the elections, a practice that has unfortunately survived and thrived on the state level in Mexico.
The governor election in Tabasco is not likely to be pretty.
