WOMAN CONDUCTING AN EXIT POLL QUESTIONS A FAMILY ON ELECTION DAY, 1999-02-08 (photo)

A woman (L) conducting an exit poll questions a family February 7 in the mountain village of Chichihualco that has just voted in Sunday's elections for governor of Mexico's impoverished southern state of Guerrero. Analysts expect a close race between the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Rene Juarez and leftist challenger Felix Salgado from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Observers will closely eye the exit poll for signs of how the parties are faring as they gear up for the presidential race in the year 2000, when opposition parties may have their best chance since 1929 of unseating the PRI, the world's oldest ruling party. HR/JDP