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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2005 
Off-the-Books Bash Celebrates Creel Candidacy
 Alejandro Torres - El Universal
| | Former Interior Secretary Santiago Creel acknowleges his followers in Mexico City on Sunday. (Photo: Jorge Ríos/El Universal) |
Amidst much fanfare, former Interior Secretary Santiago Creel on Sunday officially registered his candidacy for the National Action Party's nomination to contest the presidency in 2006.
PAN party requirements call for its aspirants to officially register their candidacy with a petition of support signed by at least 2,000 party members. Creel, however, decided to bring 2,000 supporters themselves as he formally filed his paperwork at the party's Mexico City headquarters.
After Creel turned in his registration to PAN Secretary General Alejandro Zapata, he greeted the throng of his supporters many of them bused in from outside of the capital and treated to a free lunch in front of party offices on Coyoacan Avenue.
City police blocked off the surrounding area from traffic and hundreds of chairs were set up for the event. As confetti and balloons flew and television cameras rolled, the former interior secretary thanked the crowd for their support and promised victory in 2006.
The cost of Sunday's event was not revealed by Creel or his supporters. According to existing campaign spending law, as well as the PAN's own internal regulations, presidential aspirants are only required to reveal expenditures incurred on or after July 12.
Despite that the presidential campaign season officially begins on Tuesday, Creel has been actively promoting his candidacy since he stepped down as President Fox's top cabinet member on June 1. He has, on several occasions, denied requests to reveal the costs of his unofficial promotional campaign.
An analysis commissioned by EL UNIVERSAL, however, estimates that Creel has already spent more than 109 million pesos (US10 million) on television and radio ad spots.
The issue of campaign spending has been a hot one of late after the recent gubernatorial elections in the State of Mexico, the nation's largest. In that race, opponents accused the winning Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, of vastly exceeding legal spending limits.
On Sunday, Creel said that there was no comparison between the PRI's campaign strategies and his own.
"The difference is that the PRI loots public funds to support its candidates," he told reporters. "Our resources come from voluntary donations from supporters." |
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