NUMEROUS surveys indicate that approximately 20% of Mexican citizens are still undecided as to who they will vote for in the upcoming July 1 Presidential elections – or if they will even go to the polls at all.

This percentage of undecided voters represents between 17 and 25 million people, who, according to experts, could be decisive in determining the country’s next President, for the six year term 2012-2018.

Political leader Cuauhtémoc Amezcua Dromundo has commented that this type of crystal ball gazing can be deceptive and is often used to manipulate public opinion, referring to the battle raging among pollsters.

Many surveys are being brazenly retouched in an effort to benefit a particular political organization, affirmed Amezcua, President of the Popular Socialist (PPS) in Mexico.

They are experts in offering information conveniently and it works, he said, commenting on the ranking of the four candidates running for President, produced by polling companies.

The current election campaign has, from the very beginning, been presented as a battle between the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN), ignoring the anti-neoliberal candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Amezcua commented.

They’re right, he continued, when they say that the battle at the polls is between two groups, but it’s not the PRI vs PAN, but rather the Progressive Movement left alliance, supporting López Obrador, against the two traditional parties.

Pollsters give the lead to Enrique Peña Nieto, candidate of the Commitment to Mexico coalition which includes the PRI and the Green Ecologists (PVEM), followed by López Obrador, who just a few weeks ago regained second place from the PAN candidate, Josefina Vázquez Mota.

Environmentalist Gabriel Quadri of the New Alliance Party occupies a distant fourth place position.

In any event, Quadri hopes to win a minimum 2% of the vote, to maintain the New Alliance’s status as an officially registered party.

The second and final candidates’ debate, organized by the Federal Electoral Institute, was held in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

The two leading candidates avoided confrontation and made proposals, while

Vázquez Mota, who needs a comeback, went on the attack.

As the elections draw near, the Mexican political scene has heated up. Accusations and efforts to discredit opponents have increased, although the candidates insist they will not be provoked.

Propaganda disseminated by the mass media has also intensified, particularly advertisements attempting to promote fear, undermining the confidence of voters, and trying to draw voters away from certain candidates.

Specifically, in the case of López Obrador, there is an attempt to replay the script utilized in 2006, when he was also a candidate and labeled as a danger to the country.

The defining moments of the race to Los Pinos will apparently emerge at the last minute. We shall see how the prediction made by the traditional political forces fares, if this is their political battle, and López Obrador of no account.

There are four options in Mexico, given the number of candidates, but just one possibility for change, Amezcua emphasized.