The Mexican

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Nuevo León Nuevo León () is a state in the northeast region of Mexico. The state was named after the New Kingdom of León, an administrative territory from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, itself was named after the historic Spanish Kingdom of León. With a ...

held an election on Sunday, 6 July 2003. At stake was the office of the Nuevo León State Governor, and all 42 members of the unicameral Nuevo León State Congress, and 51 mayors and municipal councils.

Governor

Executive power rests in a governor, who is directly elected by the citizens, using a

secret ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote ...

, to a six-year term with no possibility of reelection. The position is open only to a Mexican citizen by birth, at least 30 years old with at least five years residency in Nuevo León. The victorious candidate in this election was José Natividad González Parás, representing an alliance of the

Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario Institucional, ; abbr. PRI) is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the Nati ...

(PRI) and the Green Ecological Party (PVEM). This was a major victory for the PRI, since the highly industrialised state of Nuevo León had previously been governed by the PAN and was generally considered a solid PAN state. González Parás took office on October 4, 2003, for a term that will end on October 4, 2009.

State congress

Legislative power in the state rests in a

unicameral legislature Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

composed of 42 deputies, also elected via secret ballot by the citizenry, 26 of whom are directly elected and 16 chosen according to a plurinominal system involving

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

. Following the election, the 70th Legislature consists of 23 PRI deputies, 11 from PAN, 3 from PT, 3 from PVEM, 1 from PRD, and one independent.

Governor

State congress

See also