Mexico's presidential election was too close to call last Sunday, with voters divided bitterly between a leftist offering himself as a savior to the poor and a conservative warning his rival's free-spending proposals that threaten the economy.

Electoral officials were conducting a quick count of the votes, and were hoping to declare a winner later Sunday. But they warned that they would hold off — perhaps for days — if neither candidate had a large enough advantage. Some fear violence and political chaos if the results are not decisive.

Mexican media did not release the results of their exit polls because the differences were smaller than their margins of error. A spokesman for the Televisa network said the difference between the top two candidates was less than three percentage points.

Felipe Calderon, 43, of outgoing President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, has been running an exceedingly close race with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 52, of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. The Institutional Revolutionary Party's Roberto Madrazo, 53, had been trailing in third place.

With 9 percent of the vote counted, Calderon had 40 percent of the vote, compared to 35 percent for Lopez Obrador and 19 percent for Madrazo, the Federal Electoral Institute reported.

The vote was the first since Fox's stunning victory six years ago ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and it could determine whether Mexico becomes the latest Latin American country to move to the left.

Electoral officials said voting was relatively peaceful, although many voters complained polls opened late or ran out of ballots.

Luis Carlos Ugalde, president of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute, said only eight of more than 130,488 polling stations failed to open — the fewest in Mexico's history.

"We've had an exemplary election day, of which all Mexicans can be proud," Ugalde said.

Exit polls indicated National Action Party did well in three governors races — Morelos, Guanajuato and Jalisco — while Marcelo Ebrard of Lopez Obrador's party easily won the Mexico City mayor's post.

As for Congress, key to determining whether the next president will be able to push through reforms,none of the parties dominated. Two exit polls, both with a 1.5 percent margin of error, gave National Action 35 percent, Democratic Revolution 31 percent and the PRI 28 percent of the lower house of Congress.

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