Mexican Lawmakers Scuffle Over Appointee

The first session of Tabasco’s new state legislature exploded into fistfights Monday as lawmakers fought over an interim governor named after October’s gubernatorial election was annulled.

Chairs and windows were broken during the brawl in which opposition legislators from the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, angrily rejected the candidate chosen Sunday by the outgoing legislature, dominated by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

The PRI suffered a crushing defeat Friday when the Federal Electoral Tribunal annulled the party’s victory in Tabasco’s gubernatorial election.

The ruling, which backed claims by opposition parties that the balloting was marred by irregularities, deprived the PRI of the only governorship it had won since losing the presidential election in July after 71 years in power.

In response, the PRI-dominated Tabasco state congress used its last session Sunday to name federal PRI legislator Enrique Priego as the interim governor in charge of calling new elections.

The outgoing legislature also approved a surprise constitutional amendment Saturday that extended to 18 months the time the acting governor has to call a new vote--a move seen as the PRI’s bid to keep an opposition governor out of the oil-rich state.

The PRI still has the most seats but lacks an absolute majority in the new congress, which took over Monday. The PRI now has 16 seats, while the opposition bloc has 15--12 of which belong to the PRD, two to the National Action Party of Mexican President Vicente Fox and one to the Workers Party.

“This is a transgression of the law,” PRD legislator Juan May said Monday of Priego’s appointment. “It’s not legal. . . . He’s a federal congressman and at the same time interim governor.”

The violence broke out after opposition parties demanded that the new congress appoint a different interim governor.

The scuffles prompted PRI legislators to abruptly suspend the session by shutting off electricity in the building. Opposition lawmakers were about to name a new interim governor in their own symbolic session conducted with candles and loudspeakers but ultimately agreed to instead negotiate a solution with the PRI.