The leader of Mexican ruling National Action Party (PAN) has resigned after PAN lost five of the six governorships it had in the country's midterm election, and its majority status in the legislature, local media reported on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.
"After these electoral failures, I have opted not to continue at the helm of the political institution that had already suffered state-level losses last year," German Martinez, president of PAN, told reporters.
Martinez said Monday that he was responsible for the election results. "I worked hard...but my work did not achieve the expected result."
PAN has retained the presidency of the nation, which is in the hands of Felipe Calderon and he was not up for election on Sunday.
Early results from the Federal Electoral Agency showed PAN won 9.4 million votes, or 27.9 percent of the total, making it the second largest party in the 500-seat Chamber of Deputies, with 146 seats. Before the election PAN had 206 seats.
The big winner was the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which will have a majority along with their coalition partners, the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM).
The PRI won 12.3 million votes or 36.8 percent of the total, meaning it will have at least 233 seats. With the 17 seats from the PVEM, the coalition achieved 50 percent of the congressional seats.
Martinez had been president of PAN since December 2007. Now the party has 30 days to elect a new president.