* The Twitter poll, click for larger view.
The left-leaning daily La Jornada conducted an informal poll of 914 current Twitter users in Mexico to see how the country's political parties will fare in the upcoming mid-term legislative election, on July 5. Querying its Twitter followers, the paper's poll found that right-wing or center-right parties (the cool colors), led by the president's PAN, garnered 33% of users' support. Left-wing or center-left parties (the warm colors), led by the PRD and Convergencia, got the majority remainder.
But the truth is you can't read this or any poll in a traditional left-right political binary without taking into account the curious position of the PRI. That party ruled the country pretty much unopposed for more than 70 years, until the 2000 election. They're not exactly the paragons of democracy -- nevermind the Revolution. (Wait, whatever happened to the Revolution?) La Jornada, on its own Twitter profile, identifies the PRI among the conservatives. (Guess that's what happened to the Revolution.)
Yet in poll after poll, the PRI is expected to be the big winner on July 5, signalling an imminent twilight zone between this summer and the crucial presidential election in 2012, when the PRI's candidate -- whomever, ahem, he is -- will be the man to beat.