[1] The Institutional Revolutionary Party won 239 of the 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, the first time it had failed to win a majority.

At first, the PRI refused to accept the nomination and its parliamentary leader, Arturo Núñez Jiménez, declared it illegal.

However, the PRI later accepted the fact and Muñoz Ledo answered the state of the union address of President Ernesto Zedillo.

Due to the seriousness of the problems, the prospect of a president resigning was openly discussed for the first time in a nation with a long-standing presidential tradition.

[3] A number of erratic decisions in the first year of Zedillo's administration heightened the sense of vulnerability, including the police-military operation against the Zapatistas on 9 February 1995, the backing of the contested governors of Chiapas and Tabasco and the resignation of three secretaries of state in less than six months.