Section 2. News Report. Election in Mexico.
In this country, today was a day of waiting by voters to learn if their candidate won or lost. That provides more suspense than is typical in elections in Mexico.

In that country, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party has not lost a single state or national election since its founding in 1929.

Critics of the system in Mexico say it is not truly democratic because the opposition parties had virtually no chance of taking power. But those parties have grown stronger in recent years and there is increasing pressure to change the procedures for elections.

Today the Mexican Congress began work on a package of reforms that eventually could give opposition parties in greater voice in politics in Mexico. NPR's Tom Julton reports in Mexico City.

A week ago, sunday, voters in the Mexican State of Sinaloa elected a new governor. But in a few days, spokesmen for the National Action Party, the opposition, were claiming victory. But yesterday the government announced a different result.

The winner, the government said, was the candidate of the ruling party, the PRI, by its initials in Spanish, and by a three-to-one margin.

The National Action Party immediately charged that the PRI with government's help has stolen the election. The accusation has become routine.

Opposition parties in Mexico from the left to the right claimed the government here manipulates elections to guarantee that the PRI always wins. Government funds, the opposition says, pay for PRI campaigns, and the government employees are forced to support PRI candidates as the price of keeping their jobs.