Only six of 121 independent candidates won in last Sunday's elections

This year more than 500 applicants expressed their intention to become an independent candidate. However, only 121 of them obtained the registration: 21 for federal deputy and the rest for a municipality or local legislator in 15 states.

Nuevo León heads the list of independent winners with two possible victories: a mayor (César Valdés Martínez Valdés - García) and a governor (Jaime Rodriguez Calderón- Nuevo León), a former member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Of the 889 municipalities and 16 districts in Mexico City at stake, independent candidates won in only three of them: Alfonso Martínez, former PAN member, candidate for mayor of Morelia, Michoacán; José Alberto Méndez, known as "El Bronco of Guanajuato", candidate for mayor of Comonfort, and Pedro Kumamoto, a 25-year-old candidate who won a seat in Jalisco's District X, which encompasses Guadalajara's affluent suburb of Zapopan.

With a US$14,000 war chest financed with small donations he limited to no more than US$450, Kumamoto, of Japanese ancestry, brushed aside rivals from well-financed and entrenched political parties.

Another prominent independent is Manuel Clouthier, who won a federal Congress seat in Sinaloa. Clouthier was once a member of the National Action Party and his father ran for president under the same banner.