The Mexican Elections of 1958: Affirmation of Authoritarianism?

Abstract

N PREPARATION for the new government which came to office on December 1, 1958 in Mexico, the regular sexennial election was held on the first Sunday of July, the sixth.' Of the 10,422,122 persons registered to vote, 4,586,343 were women, who were voting for the presidency for the first time in Mexican history.2 Adolfo L6pez Mateos, the candidate of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and of two minor parties,3 received 6,769,754 votes out of 7,485,402 cast. The PRI also received a majority of the votes counted in all 60 senatorial races and in 161 of the 162 deputy's races.4 This brief accounting of the election offers nothing surprising. The PRI's candidates regularly have received at least 75 per cent of the votes cast for the presidency. Its leaders reached the decision some time ago that the arbitrary assignment of a few thousand votes out of perhaps millions, as was the case in most early elections, could not delude many at home or abroad into recognizing the political process in Mexico as free. Actually, any other result than that of 1958 would have been not only amazing but somewhat dangerous. The opposition candidate, Luis H6ctor Alvarez, of the Partido de Acci6n Nacional (PAN), seemingly sure that he could not win, had made such demagogic promises that his victory would have placed an untenable burden on both the governmental and social structure of the country. What is surprising is that the campaign and