Voters in Mexico are gearing up to elect a new government that will lead their country for the next six years. In the weeks preceding the July 2 presidential election, most polls have been showing a virtual dead heat between the top two contenders, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Felipe Calderon, with Lopez Obrador slightly ahead.

The choices are clearly different. Calderon -- of the official National Action Party, known as the PAN -- represents the continuation of President Vicente Fox’s conservative policies. Lopez Obrador -- of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD -- is a populist who has proposed a long list of social services for the poor, elderly, students and union members, all without raising taxes. His critics say they are unrealistic promises that, if put into place, would bankrupt the country.

An interesting factor in this election is that Roberto Madrazo, the candidate for the PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party -- which ruled Mexico for seven decades before losing power to Fox in 2000 -- has not resonated with voters, even though he represents the largest and most organized party in the country, and stands at a distant third place.

It has been a dirty, mudslinging campaign, but the electoral process has been one of the most transparent and democratic that the country has seen in several decades. Political parties held internal primaries, there were two televised debates among the candidates, campaign spending was closely monitored by electoral authorities, and the president stayed away -- or at least tried to -- from influencing the campaign.

Yet the election does not seem to be generating a lot of enthusiasm among Mexican voters. In one poll, close to 60 percent of those approached for questioning were not interested in participating. Among Mexicans abroad -- who are voting for the first time in history, after fighting for that right for several years -- the election did not produce the expected interest. Of the estimated 4 million eligible Mexican voters who reside in the United States, only 42,000 ended up receiving absentee ballots.

Whoever does get elected will have a formidable task ahead of him. Former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda tried to run for president as an independent but was prohibited from doing so by electoral authorities. But if he had, he believes he would have faced three main challenges.

“The main challenge for a new president in Mexico is to eradicate poverty in a lasting, solid way, going beyond what has already been done,” Castañeda told me. He said it’s not about giving people money, like Lopez Obrador has been proposing, but about creating jobs and improving education.

Secondly, he said, you have to do something about the breakdown of law and order. “Without rule of law -- where you have security, the possibility of litigation and respect for property rights -- Mexico will not get investments, big or small,” he said.

The third challenge, according to Castañeda, is to create the institutions that make it possible to have rule of law so that you can create jobs in order to eradicate poverty. No easy task.

The former foreign minister is not shy about revealing who he will vote for. “Felipe Calderon is not perfect, but he will follow the policies set forth by President Fox,” he said. Policies, by the way, that Castañeda himself helped design. “With Calderon, you can expect democratic order, a stable economy and respect for human rights,” he said. But the main reason, he added, is that Calderon is the least of all evils.