Guadalajara (Mexico), May 8 (IANS/EFE): A female candidate of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, posed semi-nude for posters in her "provocative" campaign for a seat in Mexico's lower house.

Natalia Juarez, 34, told EFE Monday that she posed topless with another six women to launch a "provocative, different and unprejudiced" campaign here in the western state of Jalisco.

"It's an attempt to run a campaign that is different and cheerful, but also an invitation for people to reveal who they are and commit themselves," the University of Guadalajara professor said.

In one shot used in her campaign, Juarez appears at the centre of a group of six women of different ages who cover their breasts with their right hand while raising their left hand. Underneath appears the headline: "Dare to join a new, unprejudiced nation-building project!"

The photos were posted on the busiest streets of Guadalajara, capital of Jalisco and Mexico's second city, and will also be used to illustrate the leaflets that the candidate's campaign team will hand out to the public.

The idea of the campaign is "to make an impact and not go unnoticed" among voters and use to the fullest the scant finances that she has available, the candidate said.

In a state with a very conservative society and governed by the right-wing National Action Party, Juarez said she isn't afraid of a stern reaction against her campaign. "It's a risk we have to take," she said.

Juarez is running for a seat in Jalisco's 8th District against two of the state's best known politicians: National Action's Jorge Salinas Osornio and Leobardo Alcala Padilla of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.