MEXICO . . . ELECTION PREVIEW

Despite scattered cries of fraud, many Mexicans hope Sunday's presidential vote will live up to its promise to be the first truly contested election they have ever known. Nonetheless, TIME Mexico City Bureau Chief Laura Lopez reports, polls indicate most Mexicans will back Ernesto Zedillo, candidate of Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that has ruled the country since 1929. One reason for Zedillo's 20-point lead: Lopez says rival National Action Party candidate Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, once the front-runner, miscalculated by taking a campaign break in June. Another: "They're indicating that they still aren't ready for change," Lopez says. "And they don't have any more faith in Cevallos than they have in the PRI." As for election fraud, a record 32,000 foreign and domestic observers are manning the polls, and international auditors have given the set-up a clean bill of health. Still, Lopez says, "You never know if the people in the rural areas got the message that this time,