OREANDA-NEWS. Mexico's ruling PRI party has narrowly defeated its leftist rival in an election for the governorship of the central state of Mexico, which was held on 4 June.

The election for the state, which rings most of the capital city, pitted the PRI against the leftist national regeneration movement Morena led by presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who supports rolling back Mexico's flagship energy reform.

Morena candidate Delfina Gomez had been neck and neck with PRI candidate Alfredo del Mazo ahead of polling day. But with almost 98pc of the ballots counted, del Mazo had secured a 33.7pc share of the vote, while Gomez had 30.8pc. Mexico state has long been a PRI stronghold.

Lopez Obrador has for months led opinion polls for the presidential election scheduled to take place next year. His populist, Mexico-first agenda could mark a radical departure in the energy sector from the current administration's sweeping reforms that have ended state-owned oil firm Pemex and power utility CFE's long-held monopolies.

Mexico this year plans to completely liberalise gasoline and diesel prices throughout the country and hold open seasons for some of the country's fuel transportation and storage infrastructure. The presidential hopeful, a fierce opponent of the energy reform, says he would hold a referendum on revoking the changes.

"He would organise a referendum to find out the people's opinion and from there launch the required constitutional reforms," says Claudia Sheinbaum, who was Lopez Obrador's choice for environment minister in his 2012 presidential bid.

Contracts already signed by dozens of domestic and foreign companies under the reform could be renegotiated, depending on the result of the referendum, Sheinbaum says. "We would analyse how, in the judicial framework, to negotiate these contracts," she says.

But Lopez Obrador could yet soften his stance. "Lopez Obrador has two facets," local analyst and former director of intelligence analysis for the Mexican national security agency Dwight Dyer says. "As a leader, he tends to become more moderate, he is less populist." As the mayor of Mexico City in 2000-05, Lopez Obrador often promoted projects that benefited the upper middle class, Dyer says.

Lopez Obrador's energy policy proposals are still a work in progress, close adviser Jorge Eduardo Navarrete says. "It is open to debate which aspects of the recent energy reform would be brought forward and given emphasis, and which we would try to moderate or not promote in such an open way," he says.