Mexican Presidential Race Is Shaping Up Between Labastida And  Fox
MICHAEL HOLMES, WORLD NEWS: Presidential hopefuls in Mexico have held their first televised debate in what is seen as the tightest race in the country's history. Five of the six candidates are trying to end the ruling party's 71-year hold on power. Gordon Robertson reports.</s>GORDON ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With little more than two months to go before the election, polls show a close race between Francisco Labastida of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and Vicente Fox of the National Action Party. Another candidate, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, has faded to a distant third. In Tuesday's debate, Fox took aim at the PRI's seven decades in power.</s>VICENTE FOX, MEXICAN PRES. CANDIDATE (through translator): We are proposing a transition to democracy to go from the regime of the last 70 years, with all its vices and corruption, to a true democracy.</s>ROBERTSON: Labastida, of the ruling party, countered the assault by seeking to shift the discussion to social issues like unemployment and insisted that he offers the real hope for change.</s>FRANCISCO LABASTIDA, MEXICAN PRES. CANDIDATE (through translator): It's unacceptable that in Mexico, 40 million Mexicans live in poverty. Many people are unemployed, and salaries never increase. These things have to change, and they are going to change.</s>ROBERTSON: Many observers interpreted Labastida's combative tone as an indication that he is taking Fox's challenge seriously. President Ernesto Zedillo is barred from seeking a second six-year term by the Mexican constitution. He is widely credited with making the PRI more accountable and opening up the electoral process to competing parties. His efforts, however, may be making things difficult for his favorite candidate. A second debate involving the three leading candidates is scheduled for next month. Gordon Robertson, CNN.