"THIS is the fall of our Berlin Wall," shouted an excited middle-aged man, waving the yellow flag with the Aztec sun, symbol of Cuauhtemoc Cardenas's victorious mayoral campaign.
It was midnight on Sunday in Mexico's giant central square and 100,000 cheering, singing, dancing: Cardenas supporters refused to go home, savouring a long-awaited victory that effectively ends the 70-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
The crowd was made up mainly of working-class residents living in the crumbling houses of the old city centre, loyal to Cardenas since the massive 1985 earthquake laid bare the corruption of PRI city planners, who built houses without cement supports and then pocketed international relief.
President Ernesto Zedillo was born in the same district, which voted 52 per cent for Cardenas, despite a tradition whereby presidents cultivate support in their home base. In Agualegas, northern Mexico, home of the family of ex-president Carlos Salinas, 61 per cent of votes went to the PRI, a sign that old loyalties held firm. With 86 per cent of votes counted, the PRI's national vote had dropped to 39 per cent, removing its parliamentary majority.
"We are still the party with the most votes in Mexico," said a sombre PRI party chief, Mr Humberto Roque Villanueva, who earlier predicted chaos and capital outflows should the PRI lose its congressional majority.
The centre-right National Action party (PAN) narrowly held its position as the nation's second political force, winning 28 per cent of the vote, while Cardenas's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) made impressive strides, capturing 26 per cent of voter preferences. In Chiapas, election day was a disaster, as almost 20 per cent of all voting booths were destroyed, presumably by Zapatista rebel sympathisers, protesting against state- sponsored violence which made campaigning in rural areas virtually impossible.
In Mexico City, the festive stragglers headed home at 1 a.m., serenaded by a homeless youth wrapped in a blanket, blowing on a plastic yellow horn. Some 330 homeless people died anonymously on the streets of the city last year, a sign of the tremendous tasks ahead for the new mayor.