Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Secretary of the Budget, candidate of the status quo Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), for President of Mexico, claims electoral victory, over against former Governor Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, of Michoacan, candidate of the leftist National Democratic Front (FDN); and entrepreneur Manuel Clouthier, candidate of the free-market National Action Party (PAN).  Early vote returns showed Cardenas leading, but the computerized tabulation system went down for several hours.  When it came back up Gortari was winning, with 50.7% of the vote, against 31.1% for Cardenas, 16.8% for Clouthier, and 2.9% for two other candidates.

       NOTE: The PRI has now maintained a 59-year monopoly on political power.

       Postscript: Years later Gortari’s predecessor Miguel de la Madrid admitted that that election had been rigged to continue PRI’s 59-year monopoly on political power; also that the ballots had been destroyed to conceal the fraud.

       [added 1/19/2023]