A couple of days remain before we learn the outcome of critical elections that will set Mexico and our lakeshore communities on a new course.

Come what may, our friends and neighbors will pull up bootstraps and forge ahead into an uncertain future.

Past experience leads me conclusions on what is bound to happen in the coming weeks and months. For one thing, we can count on some fussing and fuming from local politicians and their ardent followers who fail to come out on top of the vote.

Taking into account the probability of a slim margin of victory between the main four contenders, it’s likely that one or more of the losers will lodge challenges to the official vote count. After vicious campaigns, they will cite irregularities such as vote buying, acts of sabotage and excess on spending caps.

Reviews handled by electoral tribunals can drag on for months before decisions are finally handed down. At the end of the day, final tallies may be modified, but full reversals on election results are rare. In the interim, presumable winners will be left in the lurch while attempting to organize to take office.

For certain, Chapala’s next presidente municipal will face a steep hurdle in bringing together opposing political factions. No matter how the vote breaks, it’s a given that the majority of constituents will have voted for someone else. Tact, consummate persuasive skills and tough skin will be required to successfully ride out the wave of inconformity and get opposition party representatives on the city council to jump aboard the bandwagon for the common good.

The incoming mayor will also be hounded by campaign supporters seeking some sort of payback for their loyalty. Many will fall into the traditional practice referred to as buscando hueso, meaning looking for a bone as a government employee. The reward may be a low level staff job or a well remunerated appointment as a department chief.  The custom is recognized as a chief cause of the city’s bloated payroll that has mushroomed from one administration to the next.

There will also be an onslaught of community outsiders connected to the mayor’s political party who will be ousted from government positions by new administrations taking charge in other places. Local folks tend to take a dim view of strangers from elsewhere who land juicy posts here. But the chief executive will be hard pressed to deny favors demanded by party heavies from above.

Sadly, from my perspective, media outlets are not exempt from political games. Reporters and editors who cotton to the whims of government authorities with favorable coverage on job performance are known as chayoteros, a term equating the green veggie to pay-for-play schemes. These may involve outright cash payment for puff pieces or lucrative advertising deals. It’s a deplorable and unscrupulous practice any way you cut it.

Still, we can hold out hope that the next government rulers will adhere to high moral standards to run an honest and transparent administration. Changuitos – cross your fingers.