The constitutional ordinary election of the year 1997 was the first occasion that the citizens of the Federal District went to the urns to elect the Head of Government of such City and the first group of Legislators that the Legislative Assembly will have. Until that date, it was an authority of the President of the Republic to appoint the head of the Local Executive Power.

The Voter List used for such elections was of 5,889,985 voters, of which 5,989,411 of them were registered at the Registry of voters. This means, there was a total coverage of the 98.34% of the Voter List.

In this electoral process 8 political parties participated, from which the Partido Popular Socialista (PPS) and the Demócrata Mexicano (PDM), previously to the electoral process, obtained their conditioned registry to compete for the popular vote.

Once the election was concluded, the following political parties: Cardenista, Popular Socialista and Demócrata Mexicano; which failed to obtain 2% of the issued votes in any of the federal elections, had their registries canceled pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures (COFIPE).

In these historical elections the citizen participation in Mexico City was of 67.1%. The foregoing meant 9.5 percentage points above the attendance registered at a national level in the federal elections (57.6%).

Election for the Head of Government

In this election all the political parties competed on their own. The Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) won with a wide margin over the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) which was left in the second place with a difference of 871,210 votes that represent the 87.98 % of the first one of the later over the second one.

As it is observed in the Entity map, the PRD obtained the majority of votes in all the Boroughs of the Federal District.

Election for deputies by the principle of plurality system

As it has been mentioned, with the amendments of article 122 of the Constitution in the year of 1996, the Representative’s Assembly of the Federal District of that time (ARDF) is transformed into the actual Legislative Assembly of the Federal District (ALDF), which constitutes a collegiate instance that combines the legislative functions with administrative tasks. By the foregoing, in the elections of 1997 the I Legislative Assembly of the Federal District was integrated.

In these elections, the Partido de la Revolución Democrática won in 38 of the 40 electoral districts and the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) in 2. In terms of votes the difference between the first political force (PRD) and the second one (PRI) was of 832,903 votes, that equals to 91.8% more votes for the first one of the later in comparison with the second one, practically a 2 by 1 ratio.

As it is observed in the foregoing figures, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional failed to have one victory in the single member districts, in spite of occupying the second position in the total of votes obtained at the entity level.

Election of deputies of proportional representation

In this election, at the same as in the foregoing, the political parties competed on their own. Insofar the total counting of votes for this election derives from the sum of votes obtained at the election of deputies by the principle of plurality system plus the corresponding to special Polling stations of proportional representation, the PRD obtained 91.6% more than the votes obtained by the PRI, that maintained itself as second political force of the entity (see schedule)

In the distribution of the 26 seats of proportional representation of the Legislative Assembly by this principle, 9 corresponded to the PAN, 11 to the PRI 11; 1 to the PC, 1 to the PT, 4 to the PVEM and none to the PRD (see table).

The fact that no deputies were designated by this principle to the Partido de la Revolución Democrática is due to the provisions of article 366, paragraph 1, section c) of the Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures (COFIPE) in force and effect on 1996, that sets forth the rules for the designation of deputies to the Congress by the principle of proportional representation.

Insofar the parties Popular Socialista and Demócrata Mexicano failed to achieve 1.5% of the issued votes in the constituent of the Entity, they did not access to the distribution of this kind of seats.

In the following Schedule, a comparison of the voting percentages obtained by the political parties with the percentages of seats obtained at the integration of the Legislative Assembly.