Mexico at crossroads in election thriller

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will decide whether to join the growing leftist camp in Latin America or stick with a free-market path in a presidential election on Sunday that is balanced on a knife-edge.

In a country crucial to U.S. interests in border security, trade and immigration, polls show an extremely close race between leftist anti-poverty crusader and former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and conservative Felipe Calderon, a former energy minister from the ruling party.

Lopez Obrador, 52, leads opinion polls by about only 2 percentage points after almost six months of bruising campaigning that split a country still finding its feet with full democracy after seven decades of one-party rule ended in 2000.

The leftist, who rejects any comparisons to U.S. foe Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, promises to slash bureaucracy to pay for welfare programs he says will lift millions out of poverty.
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Turnout is expected to be reasonably high, at about two-thirds of Mexico's 71 million voters, after polling stations open at 8 a.m. (9 a.m. EDT) (1300 GMT).

Voting ends 12 hours later and official results are expected at 11 p.m. (midnight EDT) (0400 GMT on Monday).

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