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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2006 
Patricia Mercado Registers Presidential Campaign
 Associated Press
Mexico City – Acknowledging she has little chance of winning, a feminist and little-known presidential candidate registered her campaign with electoral officials Saturday, vowing that "as a Mexican woman, I know how to battle adversity."
A champion of women's rights and leftist causes, Patricia Mercado is hoping to run in the July 2 election with the Alternative Social-Democratic and Workers Party, founded for her candidacy.
Mercado narrowly lost the 2000 presidential nomination for the Social Democracy Party, which was stripped of its federal registration, public funding and spot on the ballot after failing to generate a minimum level of support during the election six years ago.
Officials from the Federal Electoral Commission are expected to decide in coming days whether to approve Mercado's party and candidacy. Under Mexican law, only registered political parties may nominate candidates to appear on the ballot.
President Vicente Fox ended 71 straight years of single-party rule with his win at the polls in 2000, but is barred from seeking a second, six-year term. His party's candidate, as well as two others from rival parties are locked in a close race to replace him.
Speaking in an auditorium at the electoral commission's headquarters in southern Mexico City, Mercado said she might loose the election and "if that happens I will recognize the results."
"But let me tell you something, as a Mexican woman, I know what it's like to battle adversity," she said. "As a Mexican woman, I know what it's like to find closed doors that won't allow for the defense of what's ours and our rights."
She harshly criticized all three major presidential candidates, including ex-Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party. Mercado added, however, that "Mexican leftists can and should win this presidential election."
After the 2000 race, Mercado served as president of the Mexico Possible, a leftist party that also lost its federal registration after a poor showing in 2003 congressional midterm elections.
Public declarations of candidacies were discouraged during the 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, when presidents hand-picked their successors. That changed with the election of Fox, who declared his primary candidacy three years before final vote.
Mexican Candidates Begin Registration
Prensa Latina
Mexico - The Federal Electoral Institute of Mexico (IFE) reported everything ready to begin registration of presidential candidates for the July 2 elections.
Registration of candidates, as of Saturday, is the last formal step before starting the campaign Jan 19, after a recess ruled by the IFE on Dec 11.
Patricia Mercado, ASC (Alternativa Socialdemócrata y Campesina), a minority farm group registered by IFE on July 14, 2005, is expected to be the first to register.
Mercado, with an active 30-year record in women´s and civil society organizations has said she is looking for social equity through market laws regulated by the State if necessary.
According to polls, her possibilities of winning are minimal compared to candidates nominated by the country's three main parties.
The Revolución Democrática (PRD), which formed an alliance "Por el bien de todos" (for the good of all) with labor (Trabajo) and Convergence parties, is expected to register Sunday.
The self-proclaimed leftwing coalition nominated 53-year old politician Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, one of the most popular in the country, who is leading in polls.
Lopez Obrador, who won elections for governor of the densely populated Federal District, is focusing his campaign on the struggle against poverty, which affects nearly 50 percent of the Mexican population.
The nominee from the governing PAN (Acción Nacional), Felipe Calderon, will register on Jan 11, and on Jan 15, the final day for registration, Roberto Madrazo, from PRI (Revolucionario Institucional) will follow suit.
PAN will run alone, while PRI managed to form an alliance with the Ecologist Green Party.
Madrazo and Calderon remain technically tied in surveys, several points behind Lopez Obrador. |
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