Mexico opposition leader quits leftist parties

The Los Angeles Times, 9/10/12

Under a banner declaring “ours is a question of dignity,” defeated presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced Sunday in this city’s massive Zocalo main square that he was withdrawing from the leftist parties he has long dominated while also launching a campaign of peaceful resistance to the newly elected government.

Lopez Obrador, who came in second in the July presidential vote, said during a rally that he would not recognize the official results that named Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, as the winner…

He said he was leaving the mainstream leftist coalition that had backed his candidacy and would lead a “movement” that he formed several years ago called Morena, or the Movement for National Regeneration, which is dedicated to social and political change. He would decide at a later date, he said, whether to formally constitute Morena as a political party…

If Lopez Obrador does turn Morena into a political party, he could easily be its presidential candidate in elections in 2018, a challenge that would split the votes within the left and further erode its electability.

But his withdrawal also allows the mainstream left to proceed without a figure that was increasingly polemical. Lopez Obrador was at times erratic and confrontational on the campaign trail, and he alienated many of the more centrist voters whom he needed to win the election.

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What do you think of López Obrador’s refusal to accept Peña Nieto as President and his announcement that he will engage in civil disobedience? [Op-ed discussion, in Spanish]

Animal Politico, El Palenque, 9/4/12

In this debate forum Marco Rascon, Javier Garza, Javier Trevino, Leonardo Curzio and Tatiana Clouthier (among others) comment on López Obrador’s decision.  Opinions range from “AMLO is correct in protesting the TEPJF ruling” to “it is lamentable that the country is revisiting the same situation it was in 6 years ago.”

Follow the rest of the discussion here…

Mexico’s Lopez Obrador rejects presidential poll ruling

BBC, 8/31/12

Mexico’s presidential runner-up Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has refused to recognise a court ruling upholding July’s election and called for a mass demonstration.

The left-winger said the country’s highest electoral tribunal made an illegitimate decision…

The former Mexico City mayor also called on his supporters to hold a demonstration in the capital’s main square on 9 September.

Earlier, all seven judges on the Federal Electoral Tribunal voted to reject the runner-up’s accusations.

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Votes in the presidential election by state [in Spanish]

El Universal, 7/11/12

  To see the electoral map click here 

Mexico’s Enrique Pena Nieto, PRI Claim Victory in Presidential Election

Fox News Latino, 7/2/12

Enrique Peña Nieto

The Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, and its candidate Enrique Peña  Nieto, have claimed victory in Mexico’s presidential election after the preliminary count Sunday night…The PRI for 71 years ruled as a single party known for coercion and corruption,  but also for building Mexico’s institutions and social services. It was often  accused of stealing elections, most infamously the 1988 presidential vote. But  PRI governments were also known for keeping a lid on organized crime, whose  battles with government and each other under Calderón have taken more than  50,000 lives and traumatized the country…

Peña Nieto in his victory speech vowed he won’t make pacts with organized crime,  but rather will focus on curbing violence…

“We know there is some local corruption in the PRI with organized crime,” said  Andrew Selee of the Washington-based Mexico Institute. “The question is, ‘Will  they ignore it or go after it aggressively?’”

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Two amazing moments [op-ed in Spanish]

Reforma, José Woldenberg, 6/21/2012

Woldenberg says that though the most important part of the elections is that they occur well and without issues, there are two key, yet mostly ignored, moments in the electoral process.  The first occurs the night before the election when the IFE drops off electoral packets in more than 140 million houses.  The second occurs on the day of the election when all the local vote counters collect the packets and count the votes, as observed by representatives of all the parties.  All of this is done to ensure that the votes will be counted in an open and transparent manner.

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According to his own poll, AMLO is 1.4% ahead of Enrique Pena Nieto [in Spanish]

Animal Politico, 6/20/2012

AMLO’s campaign released numbers from a poll which they took themselves which show AMLO ahead with 27.8% of the vote, Enrique Peña Nieto with 26.4% of the vote and Josefina Vázquez Mota with 18.4%  of the vote.  They pollsters asked the participants who they would vote for if they had to vote on that very day.

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Mexico Can Survive a New President [op-ed]

Jorge Castañeda, Time Magazine, 6/15/2012

Castañeda

According to most polls, it is now virtually certain that on July 1, Mexico will bring the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) back to the presidency, after 12 years in opposition and disgrace…As someone who contributed at least partly—some would say decisively, as one of Fox’s main campaign advisers—to the PRI’s removal from power, I would have preferred a different outcome…But I reject the notion that a PRI victory automatically implies a restoration of the old status quo, as if Mexico, its relationship with the world and the PRI itself have stood still these past 12 years.Read More…

Who will win the Mexican election?

6/12/12, Al Jazeera

For months Enrique Pena Nieto has enjoyed a commanding lead in the polls in the run-up to Mexico’s presidential election on July 1…

As Mexico’s presidential race enters its final weeks, we ask: Who is going to win the Mexican election? And can anyone stop Enrique Pena Nieto being elected the country’s president?

Inside Story Americas, with presenter Shihab Rattansi, discusses with guests: Maria Jose Lopez, a spokesperson for the ‘Yo Soy 132′ or ‘I am 132′ student movement; Eric Olson, a senior associate at the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center; and Francisco Gonzalez, a professor of Latin American studies at John Hopkins university.

Read More and View Video Here…

In Mexico, a Candidate Stands Out Despite Attacks

Archibold, Randal, The New York Times, 6/11/12

Despite the bombardment, Enrique Peña Nieto, the target of the attacks, remains the odds-on favorite to win Mexico’s presidential election on July 1, with a comfortable margin in most polls and an air of invincibility…

At Sunday’s debate, Ms. Vázquez Mota warned of “a return to authoritarianism” if Mr. Peña Nieto were elected, but he has pushed the sunnier aspects of the party, the political stability, economic expansion and large public works Mexico enjoyed under its tenure. As governor of Mexico State until last year, Mr. Peña Nieto was known best for building hospitals and roads and issuing 600 “commitments” he said he had fulfilled, no matter what his opponents say.

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Mexico Institute Elections Blog