Mexico PRI leads elections in Veracruz State

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), still stinging from defeat in the presidential election two months ago and a setback in Chiapas state, appeared poised Monday to win congressional and municipal elections in Veracruz state.

The PRI lost its first presidential election in over seven decades to Vicente Fox, of the right-of-center National Action Party (PAN), in July. Last month it lost the governor's race in the impoverished southern state of Chiapas.

MESSAGE BOARD The Fox presidency

But with 95 percent of the voting booths accounted for in Sunday's election, the PRI was winning legislative races in 14 of 24 districts in Veracruz, the Gulf Coast state 165 miles east of Mexico City.

The party was also poised to win 140 of 210 local mayor seats, taking back the cities of Coatzacoalcos and Minatitlan which had been under the control of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

The PAN became the state's second political force, winning 41 municipalities including the port of Veracruz, Boca del Rio, Poza Rica, Tuxpan and Cordoba.

Electoral authorities said they received some 20 complaints of irregularities during voting and after polls closed, including vote buying.

The elections held Sunday will see new state legislators and mayors take their posts in November and December respectively.

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