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AFP - Mexicans vote to renew governors and local officials in nearly half of the country's states on Sunday after the bloodiest electoral campaign in more than 15 years.

Voting in nearly half the 31 states plus the capital's district is expected to serve as an unofficial referendum on President Felipe Calderon's tough crackdown on drug-related violence.

It is the last major electoral test ahead of presidential polls in 2012, in which candidates from the center-left Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which lost its more than 70-year stranglehold on power in 2000, will seek to return to power.

But voters braved the growing violence to form long lines at polling stations.

The elections come less than a week after a deadly ambush on the campaign cars of PRI candidate Rodolfo Torre, who was tipped to win the governor's seat in Tamaulipas. His brother Egidio Torre replaced him on the ballot sheet.

PRI officials urged on party loyals to vote en masse in a bid to counter the climate of fear brought on by growing violence between feuding drug cartels.

"I come here to fulfill my institutional duty and do so without fear," Torre said as he cast his ballot, wearing a black ribbon on his arm. He was surrounded by tight security, including several hooded policemen.

The Interior Ministry last week offered extra security for nervous candidates as they were increasingly targeted.

Calderon's conservative National Action Party (PAN) denounced raids on party headquarters and a candidate's home in Veracruz and Hidalgo, which it blamed on local government at the hands of the PRI.

Immediate suspicion for Torre's killing fell on warring drug gangs, with some fingering the powerful Zetas, whose battles with their former allies, the Gulf Cartel, have led to an explosion of violence in Tamaulipas.

A mayoral candidate was also shot dead in the state and several others stepped down, while more than 550 electoral officials resigned, according to official figures published in La Reforma daily on Saturday.

"We're a bit nervous, but we have to go out to vote because it's our only weapon for the future," said Pedro Esparza, a factory worker in the border town of Nuevo Laredo.

Deadly attacks have surged across the country, with Calderon's military crackdown on organized crime failing to stem the wave of violence that has killed over 23,000 people since December 2006.

Fear has spread through many of the 14 out of 31 states holding elections, including 12 for governors.

Four bodies were found hanging from bridges in Chihuahua city.

In Sinaloa, the northwestern heart of Mexico's drug trafficking industry, the campaign headquarters for the PRI gubernatorial candidate were attacked with two homemade bombs on Saturday, an electoral official said.

Rumors of political deals with drug traffickers have further dented the vote's credibility, alongside fears of high abstention.

In addition to the violence, the electoral campaign has been punctuated by allegations of espionage, illegal use of public funds and the arrest of leftist gubernatorial candidate Gregorio Sanchez, a former Cancun mayor, on racketeering and drug smuggling charges.

The elections are seen as a test for Calderon's PAN against his main rivals from the PRI, currently the dominant political force at the state and local levels with leadership in 19 out of 32 states.

The PAN has formed unlikely coalitions with the leftist PRD and other smaller parties to challenge the PRI in some states. The race was expected to be especially tight in Oaxaca and Puebla states.

Some high-stake election battles were expected to continue in court long after the close of Sunday's vote.

Voting stations close at 2300 GMT and the first, partial results are expected an hour later.


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