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By Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 15, 2000
Tabasco governor's race a test for Mexico's PRI
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico -- The governor's election in Tabasco today is less about who will run the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico state -- and more about who will lead the staggering Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Polls suggest the once-dominant PRI will end a string of stunning electoral defeats, and that could be a big boost for Roberto Madrazo, the state's outgoing governor who is angling to become the new party leader.
A victory by Madrazo's hand-picked candidate, Manuel Andrade, would buck up the morale of party supporters, who have seen the PRI lose the presidency on July 2 and every other state election since.
The July 2 loss to Vicente Fox left the PRI searching for a new identity. The party, which held power for 71 years, has degenerated into a squabble for power among disenchanted factions.
MINSK, Belarus -- From a rundown office in Minsk, Anatoly Lebedko leads the opposition boycott of Belarus' parliamentary elections.
Lebedko and his allies have no other word for today's balloting than "farce" -- and say they won't participate to avoid lending legitimacy to President Alexander Lukashenko and the pocket parliament he wants to create.
"Lukashenko needs a small victorious war in the form of a parliamentary election. There is no place there for the opposition," says Lebedko.
On Saturday, some 4,000 protesters waving banners and beating drums marched through downtown Minsk urging voters to boycott the elections.
The opposition claims police have arrested more than 200 people who called for the boycott.
The election to fill 110 seats in the Chamber of Representatives, the National Assembly's lower house, appears decided, even before Belarus' 7.3-million voters go to the polls.
The United States says the vote is illegitimate and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe sent a technical mission but not an observer group after Lukashenko failed to meet its demands for fair elections.
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia -- This former Yugoslav republic is choosing a new parliament today in the third balloting since independence in 1991. And its longtime former prime minister appears likely to end up with a mandate to form a new government.
Janez Drnovsek headed Slovenia's cabinets from 1992 until six months ago, when political infighting brought down his coalition government.
Drnovsek's center-left Liberal Democrats are leading in polls with about 38 percent support. That would be enough to try to form a coalition government.