Mexican Opposition Mulls Alliance Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Mexican Opposition Mulls Alliance By Adolfo Garza Associated Press Writer Wednesday, May 26, 1999; 7:39 p.m. EDT MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Seeking to end the ruling party's 70-year grip on power, Mexico's two main opposition parties are talking of putting aside deep ideological differences to nominate a joint candidate in the 2000 presidential elections. Leaders of the right-center National Action Party and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party met Tuesday to discuss a possible electoral alliance -- the first meeting between leaders from both parties since 1997. The governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, remains Mexico's largest single party. But in recent elections, its vote totals of 40 to 45 percent often have fallen short of the combined total for Democratic Revolution and National Action. ``We are aware of the complexity of the issue,'' National Action Sen. Luis Alvarez was quoted as saying by the newspaper Reforma on Wednesday. ``I think we are off to a promising start.'' But many analysts said the partnership was a mismatch and unlikely to work. ``It's very unlikely that we will see an opposition alliance,'' said analyst Jose Antonio Crespo. ``Everything is against it from a legal, political and ideological point of view. I find it next to impossible.'' Efforts to form an alliance are also complicated by laws that discourage coalitions as well as by deep divisions and distrust between the two parties. But leaders of the two opposition parties have expressed support for an alliance of some sort and many rank-and-file members consider toppling the PRI the most important issue they face. Election reforms in recent decades have gradually made Mexican elections more competitive and in 1997, the PRI lost its majority in Congress for the first time. It also has lost a string of state governorships and an opposition party alliance threatens to cost it another on July 4. (c) Copyright 1999 The Associated Press ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-05.28.99-11:21:05-14696