Opposition claims Mexico victory

Mexico's main opposition party has claimed victory in state and local elections - held across nearly half the country - after exit polling gave them a significant lead in many of the races. "The results that we have in hand show that our victory was convincing in the areas where voting took place," Beatriz Paredes, the head of the Institutional Revolutionary party (PRI), said on Sunday. Exit polls indicated that PRI would win most of the 12 gubernatorial races, which would bolster a likely 2012 presidential bid by the party's rising star, Enrique Pena Nieto, the state of Mexico governor. The PRI pushed out rival parties in three states and kept hold of at least six others it already controlled, exit polls by the Milenio newspaper and pollster Mitofsky suggested.