Mexico's ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), held its first presidential primary in history. After this background report, Ray Suarez leads a discussion.

RAY SUAREZ: For the first time ever, Mexican voters yesterday picked the presidential nominee for the country's ruling party. The landslide winner was 57-year-old Francisco Labastida Ochoa. Next July, Labastida will run for president as the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known by its Spanish acronym, the PRI. Until this year, the PRI's presidential nominees, including current President Ernesto Zedillo, had been hand-picked by the outgoing president in a ritual known as "dedazo," finger pointing. But Zedillo proposed a landmark primary as part of a plan to reform the electoral process.

PRESIDENT ERNESTO ZEDILLO: (speaking through interpreter) I am convinced that this process of selecting candidates, because it is genuinely democratic, will become a watershed in the political history of our country.

RAY SUAREZ: Labastida, widely considered Zedillo's personal choice, routed his three opponents, winning more then 270 of the country's 300 political districts, with at least 80 percent of the votes counted. He's spent 37 years in the Mexican government. Most recently, he was in charge of national security as interior minister. In his campaign, Labastida pledged to fight corruption and spend more on social programs. For campaign strategies, the PRI candidates adopted tactics used north of the border. They paid American consultants, including strategist James Carville and pollster Stanley Greenberg, participated in televised debates and bought TV commercials. The last two elections have been tight contests for the PRI, but this time the major opposition parties appear divided.