Mexico's PAN opts for presidential primary


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Mexico's PAN opts for presidential primary

May 30, 1999
Web posted at: 2:01 AM EDT (0601 GMT)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- Mexico's National Action Party (PAN), for 60
years the most persistent critic of the government, decided on Saturday to
follow the lead of the ruling party and hold a primary to elect its 2000
presidential candidate. 

Some 8,000 party members at a PAN assembly in Mexico City voted 79.3
percent to 20.7 percent to approve a nationwide primary.

The PAN, a pro-business party with ties to the conservative wing of the
Roman Catholic Church, previously chose its candidate in a convention of
delegations.

The primary election likely would be set for September or October, and
some 500,000 to 600,000 party members are expected to participate, a party
leader said. 

The clear front-runner for the party is Guanajuato state Gov. Vicente Fox,
a former Coca-Cola executive who has been campaigning hard for months with
no internal opposition.

Fox also leads candidates from other parties in public opinion polls on
preferences for the July 2000 general election, which is shaping up as the
toughest challenge ever for the long ruling Institutional Revolution Party
(PRI).

The next major decision for the PAN is whether to enter into a broad
opposition alliance to take on the PRI. 

The PAN on Saturday took its lead from the PRI, which earlier this month
decided to abandon a long tradition in which sitting presidents
hand-picked their successors as candidates and set a Nov. 7 nationwide
primary election. 

The PRI system worked as the party won 11 straight presidential elections
since coming to power in 1929, but President Ernesto Zedillo led a
movement to democratize the selection process amid rising opposition
support. 

The PAN had long been Mexico's loyal opposition with pockets of support in
the north of the country. But the PAN made history in 1989 when Ernesto
Ruffo was elected governor of Baja California state, becoming the first
opposition governor in the PRI era. It currently has six governors in
northern and central Mexico. 

The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) also has come to prominence,
opening a left flank in the political assault on the PRI, whose image has
suffered from a string of corruption scandals and economic crises with
each six-yearly change of government. 

The PAN, PRD and two minor parties now have a combined majority in the
lower house of congress and control the governorships of nine of Mexico's
31 states. In addition, the PRD holds the mayorship of Mexico City. 

Copyright 1999 Reuters
 
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