**EXHIBIT 31.1****Certification Pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002**I, Ted T. Awerkamp, President and Chief Executive Officer of the registrant, certify that:1. I have reviewed this annual report on Form 10-K of Mercantile Bancorp, Inc.;2. Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material factor omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of thecircumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the periodcovered by this report;3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included inthis report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operationsand cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;4. The registrant’s other certifying officer(s) and I are responsible for establishing andmaintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the registrant and have:(a) Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused suchdisclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, toensure that material information relating to the registrant, including itsconsolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities,particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared;(b) Designed such internal control over financialreporting, or caused such internal control over financialreporting to be designed under our supervision, to providereasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financialreporting and the preparation of financial statements forexternal purposes in accordance with generally acceptedaccounting principles;(c) Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant’sdisclosure controls and procedures and presented in this reportour conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosurecontrols and procedures, as of the end of the period covered bythis report based on such evaluation; and(d) Disclosed in this report any change in the registrant’sinternal control over financial reporting that occurred duringthe registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter (the registrant’sfourth fiscal quarter in the case of an annual report) that hasmaterially affected, or is reasonably likely to materiallyaffect, the registrant’s internal control over financialreporting; and5. The registrant’s other certifying officer(s) and I have disclosed, based on our most recentevaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the registrant’s auditors and the auditcommittee of the registrant’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):(a) All significant deficiencies and materialweaknesses in the design or operation of internalcontrol over financial reporting which are reasonablylikely to adversely affect the registrant’s ability torecord, process, summarize and report financialinformation; and(b) Any fraud, whether or not material, thatinvolves management or other employees who have asignificant role in the registrant’s internal controlover financial reporting.     Date: March 17, 2008        /s/ Ted T. Awerkamp     Ted T. Awerkamp  President and Chief Executive Officer