DHAKA: Mexicans have voted in mid-term elections which are being seen as a test for President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Eighty million people are eligible to select the lower house of congress, hundreds of mayors and nine governors, reports the BBC.

The run-up to the poll has been marked by violence with drug cartels blamed for the deaths of several candidates.

On Sunday morning, protesters and parents of 43 students who disappeared last year burned election material in the town of Tixtla.

They say they want answers about what happened to the students before elections are held.

A dissident teachers’ union also burned ballots and ransacked offices of political parties to express its anger at education reforms.

Ahead of the elections, there was a great deal of pessimism - the feeling among many that votes do not really matter, politicians here are all the same, and violence will continue no matter what.

But at a polling station on Sunday, in relatively peaceful Mexico City, there was a sense of duty among many - that voting was the only way to make a difference.

Asked what their main concern was and almost without exception, the response among voters was: ‘Security’. People here are worried about where the country is heading.

Despite President Pena Nieto’s promises to restore peace in Mexico, these elections have proved otherwise. They have been some of the most violent in recent history.

BDST: 1028 HRS, JUNE 08, 2015
BD/