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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Former Ruling Party Endures Electoral Pounding
 Wire services - El Universal
| | Roberto Madrazo, presidential candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, casts his ballot in his hometown of Villahermosa, in the state of Tabasco, July 2, 2006. (Reuters/Stringer) |
Though a presidential winner is unclear, the PRI was the big loser Sunday.
Though Mexicans still do not know who won the presidential election, it was clear who was the big loser: the once-invincible PRI that was finally ousted in 2000 and in the latest contest was kicked while it was down.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governed Mexico from 1929 to 2000, when Vicente Fox won the presidency.
Despite its roots in the Revolution and a legacy of projects such as land reform and the nationalization of the oil industry, the PRI began in the 1980s to embrace economic policies largely indistinguishable from those later followed by Fox.
The PRI lost Sunday´s presidential election in every state, in most instances by big margins, according to preliminary figures released by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE).
PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo even lost in the precinct in Villahermosa, the capital of his home state of Tabasco, where he opted to cast his ballot.
Madrazo lost by a wide margin there to leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).
LESS THAN LABASTIDA
As the official count began on Wednesday, Felipe Calderón, of the ruling National Action Party (PAN), and López Obrador were neck-and-neck. The PRI candidate ended up a distant third with 21.57 percent, according to preliminary figures released by the IFE.
In the 2000 presidential election, PRI candidate Francisco Labastida garnered 12.6 million votes in his losing effort against Fox. Madrazo´s vote total was down 4.3 million from the number put up by Labastida six years ago.
Madrazo, the candidate of the Alliance for Mexico formed by the PRI and the Green Party, led his party to its biggest loss ever.
Political analysts said before the vote that a loss by the PRI in the election would be a "mortal blow" to the party, which was split by internal disputes and must now transform itself and decide whether it is going to represent the right, left or center.
After hearing the preliminary results, Sonora Gov. Eduardo Bours said the party needed to "reconsider its future."
"It is very clear" that the current party structure is not enough to assure victory because "today the majority vote is in the hands of those who do not have a party" and vote more for a candidate than for a party, Bours said.
DECLINE IN CONGRESS
The PRI, which claims to have 1.3 million people in its organization across Mexico, also suffered heavy losses in Congress, where it went from having the most seats to being the No. 3 party.
The loss of congressional seats surprised some pollsters, who said the PRI would be the winner in at least one of the two houses of Congress.
The PRI spokesman for the lower house of Congress, Miguel Lucero Palma, acknowledged that the party was experiencing hard times and must go into a period of "profound reflection" on the outcome of the general elections.
Lucero told the media that the party did not need a "witch hunt" and should instead focus on remaking itself and preparing for the 2009 midterm elections.
SPAT WITH GORDILLO
Congressman Roberto Pedraza blamed the party´s poor performance on the infighting between Madrazo and former PRI secretary-general Elba Esther Gordillo, who is the leader of the powerful 900,000-member SNTE teachers union, the largest union in Latin America.
Gordillo was ousted from the PRI leadership by Madrazo and became one of his bitterest political foes.
Last year, Madrazo, a former governor of Tabasco, clung to the party chairmanship while vying for the presidential nomination, as he was unwilling to allow Gordillo, the PRI´s then-No. 2, to assume the top spot, despite an earlier agreement.
Madrazo won that battle, securing the election of a figure acceptable to him as PRI chairman, but he earned the undying enmity of Gordillo, who did nothing to discourage her followers from heckling the party´s presidential standard-bearer at rallies.
MONTIEL BETRAYED
With Gordillo sidelined, Madrazo and the former governor of the State of Mexico, Arturo Montiel, faced off for the presidential nomination.
Not long before the PRI primary, Montiel, who was the designated champion of an anybody-but-Madrazo faction within the party, withdrew from the race after leaks to the press about investigations of his family´s financial dealings.
Though Montiel offered the usual platitudes about party unity after Madrazo secured the PRI´s presidential nomination, he made it clear he suspected that his erstwhile rival had been behind the damaging leaks.
Even before that episode, the PRI was slipping in the polls, despite its being by far the strongest of Mexico´s political parties in terms of national organization.
´EL GOBER PRECIOSO´
Not long after the official election campaign got under way, Madrazo was confronted with another awkward situation.
Mario Marín, the PRI governor of the central state of Puebla, was caught on tape discussing with a local business magnate a plot to jail and sexually assault a journalist who exposed a ring engaged in the sexual abuse of minors.
The businessman reportedly thanked the governor for his help, offering to "repay" him with a couple of bottles of expensive cognac, and referred to him as "my precious governor."
While Madrazo and the PRI initially defended Marín, rival parties condemned the Puebla governor and proclaimed solidarity with the targeted reporter.
The PRI, according to IFE figures, won Senate seats in five states and Chamber of Deputies seats in six states.
Madrazo, while acknowledging the poor showing Monday, said the PRI still had the ability to mobilize its supporters and pointed out that the party controlled the governorships of 17 states and "over 60 percent of city halls." |
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