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Key concerns: corruption, drug trafficking, economy
The PRI already has its hands full with a legacy of corruption and internal policy differences. Zedillo himself got his job in 1994 after the PRI's initial choice, Luis Donaldo Colosio, was assassinated at a campaign rally; the killing remains unresolved.
On another corruption front, Zedillo won points with the public but not his party when he broke an unwritten code of immunity surrounding former presidents. He did nothing to block the arrest of the brother of his predecessor, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, in the 1994 assassination of the PRI secretary-general.
Then there is the matter of drug trafficking, which touches even the top echelons of government. Just this year, none other than Mexico's top drug-fighter, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was fired for alleged connections to drug kingpins.
The illegal drug trade has become a sore point in U.S.-Mexican relations, and Mexico has moved quickly to make gestures of cracking down. But police and public leaders continue to make headlines on drug-related crimes.
Further complicating matters in Mexico is the shift it is undergoing from a closed, protective economy to one more open and competitive.
The country is emerging, thanks in significant part to Zedillo's austere debt-relief plan, from a rocky period stemming from the 1994 peso devaluation crisis and the soaring inflation that followed.
But while the government is more financially stable, the economy's fragile recovery has yet to make a tangible difference among the millions of people reported to make less than $7 a day.
And if the growing popularity of opposition parties is any sign, those wanting a better life appear to be less willing to count on the PRI to make it happen.
Many voters, sensing the potential of this novel midterm election, are showing real interest in the opportunity to enact change. It remains only for their social restlessness to be translated into votes for Mexico to become at last the republic it has long billed itself to be.
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