Mexico ruling party gives opposition a jolt Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Mexico ruling party gives opposition a jolt By Andrew Hurst May 24, 1999 Web posted at: 10:05 PM EDT (0205 GMT) MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- A decision by Mexico's ruling party to choose its presidential candidate next year in an open primary has jolted a fractured opposition into talk of an alliance. One week after the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has ruled for 70 years, announced it would abandon the ritual whereby the ruling president handpicks his successor -- known here as the "dedazo," or pointing of the finger -- shock waves are reverberating around the country. "What the PRI has buried is precisely this: the President has ceased to have the last word in determining the PRI's candidate," said Jesus Silva-Herzog, a former Finance Minister who also served as ambassador to Washington, in Mexico City daily Reforma. Yet intellectuals and political commentators have been quick to accuse the PRI of perpetuating the dedazo by other means and there has been widespread skepticism that the primary election will be conducted in a clean and above-board fashion. "There are very high levels of incredulity," said Dan Lund, Managing Director of opinion poll firm MORI de Mexico. "This is one area where elite opinion and popular opinion come together. Telephone opinion polls show people want to wait and see. The run-up to the primary election on November 7 gives the PRI an opportunity to steal the limelight from the two main opposition parties -- the center-right National Action Party (PAN) and the left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). The PRI's dramatic decision to hold a primary -- which many believe may have greatly reduced the danger of a damaging party split -- put the opposition firmly on the defensive. The move also appears to have given greater urgency to efforts by the PRD to seek an opposition alliance with the PAN and other parties. Recent polls indicate that a joint left-right alliance could possibly beat the PRI. The opposition parties plan to meet on Tuesday for their first ever formal discussion. "We are going open to listen to proposals and to look for common ground," Patricia Olamendi, the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution's alliances secretary, told reporters on Monday. "For the PRD the possibility of a great alliance with one sole candidate is our priority at this time. If the PAN wants to, great. If the PAN doesn't want to, we'll go ahead with other parties," Porfirio Munoz Ledo, a PRD congressman said. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, mayor of Mexico City, and seen as the PRD's probable candidate during next year's presidential election, has backed the idea of some kind of an alliance. Although a grand PRD/PAN alliance is seen as highly unlikely in view of deep-seated ideological differences between the two parties, a link-up would give the opposition its best chance of ending rule by the PRI. "The PRI only risks losing if the party splits or if the opposition unites," said Agustin Basave, a member of the PRI's reformist wing, who has been a vocal advocate or introducing greater internal party democracy. "The opposition got the most autocratic part of the old political system (the dedazo) to democratize but this has now taken a plank from under the opposition," said Federico Estevez, a political science professor at ITAM university in Mexico City. Copyright 1999 Reuters ================================================================= 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-05.26.99-13:39:30-27976