Mexico’s ruling party will unveil its candidate to fight for the country’s presidency on Wednesday, a key step in the process of electing the successor to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador next year.
The ruling coalition, led by Lopez Obrador’s Morena party, is choosing between a slate of six candidates with energy engineer and former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, 61, seen as the frontrunner and the president’s favorite.
Whoever is chosen will go up against Senator Xochitl Galvez, who is representing a coalition of three opposition parties including the business-friendly PAN and the PRI, which governed Mexico for most of the 20th century. With an informal communication style and a self-made businesswoman aura, Galvez has shaken a race that has always seemed to be Morena’s to lose.
At stake is not only the destiny of a $1.7 trillion economy — Latin America’s second largest and the biggest trading partner of the US — but also the political legacy of Lopez Obrador, who in his five years in power sought to reshape Mexico’s public life around his nationalist, statist view.
AMLO, as the president is popularly known, is not eligible to run for a second term.
Read More: AMLO’s Legacy Faces a Challenge Just as the World Shifts His Way
The June 2 general election will therefore be a choice between the continuity of AMLO’s policies — including universal-style social programs, an energy sector dominated by state-owned companies and government austerity — and an opposition that will try to harness part of the population’s discontent with the administration’s shortcomings, such as high levels of insecurity and poor public services.
Here’s what to expect:
Ruling Coalition
Sheinbaum’s main challenger is former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, 63, a career politician who’s among the most business-friendly figures within AMLO’s leftist party. Other presidential hopefuls include the one-time Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez, who was seen as a possible dark-horse candidate earlier in the race; former senate majority leader Ricardo Monreal; and two candidates from allied parties, Gerardo Fernandez Noroña and Manuel Velasco.
Despite electoral rules preventing formal campaigns at this stage, participants have been touring the country in the past months to improve their standings and rally support. That hasn’t changed the fact Sheinbaum remains ahead in polls and Ebrard has not managed to close the gap, increasing the perception that she has the momentum.
Morena, which was founded just 12 years ago and has consistently followed AMLO’s directives, established a convoluted set of rules to decide on its candidate while minimizing the possibility of internal infighting. Candidates were asked not to debate proposals among themselves to avoid giving arguments to the party’s rivals, according to AMLO.
Source: El Financiero
