CHARLES BIERBAUER, CNN ANCHOR: Voters in Mexico have been casting their ballots in national elections for the past eight hours. Mexico City bureau chief Harris Whitbeck is following today's vote and joins us -- Harris.</s>HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN MEXICO CITY BUREAU CHIEF: Charles, electoral officials say that 99.9 percent of the voting stations have been operating smoothly. A hundred and thirteen thousand of them have been opened throughout the country so that 59 million voters in Mexico can cast their votes and decide on a new president and on a new congress, as well as two new state governors and a new mayor for Mexico City. As I said, the authorities say everything has gone quite smoothly. Expectation is now increasing as time goes by to see when we will have early results. As part of the reforms the electoral institute did to this process, they promised quick returns so that there won't be uncertainty as to who might win this race. As you might know, the race is considered to be extremely tight between the two leading candidates. Opposition candidate Vincente Fox and official candidate Francisco Labastida have been at odds with each other for months now in a battle that obviously will culminate tonight. Meanwhile, again, I say, the authorities say they will expect quick results, and they have asked supporters of both candidates not to start celebrating prematurely to avoid any possible problems. Harris Whitbeck, CNN, live in Mexico City.</s>BIERBAUER: Harris, one quick question. Concern down there about possible voting fraud, how clean, how honest and straight forward have these elections been?</s>WHITBECK: Everybody seems to agree that they have been pretty straight forward. Several international observers, including U.S. former President Jimmy Carter say that they are quite happy with what they have seen so far. The concern has been with what happened to that vote before it actually reached the ballot box. And by that, I mean there have been some accusations of vote buying and coercion in Mexico's rural areas. Those acts obviously would influence the way people vote. But as far as the actual vote-taking process and counting, so far there have been no problems. No concerns have been raised.</s>BIERBAUER: All right, Harris Whitbeck reporting from Mexico City.
Mexico's Elections Proceed Free of Incident