MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – The Mexican ruling party’s plans to name yesterday its candidate for next year’s presidential election were roiled by controversy when one of the leading contenders denounced the vote to pick a winner and said it must be redone.
Polls suggest former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum is the favourite to claim the nomination of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), but hours before the winner was due to be announced, her closest rival, former foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard, said the vote had been tainted by irregularities.
Ebrard’s campaign has for weeks said there were problems in the national voter survey to choose a MORENA candidate, and in recent days stepped up warnings.
Party leaders were quick to defend the process. Alfonso Durazo, president of MORENA’s national board, backed the selection poll in a statement signed by all of MORENA’s state governors, of which he is one.
In a video shared on social media, Durazo said there had been unprecedented precautions to ensure that “no incident or eventuality would modify the result.”
At a hastily convened press conference in Mexico City, Ebrard told reporters that “at this point we can conclude that if the procedure is not redone, if the poll isn’t done properly, we’re not meeting the objectives set out.”
Supporters began chanting “fraud, fraud, fraud!” and Ebrard said that if the concerns were not addressed, he would not attend the MORENA event to unveil its presidential candidate, which is due to take place at around 5 p.m. (2300 GMT) on Wednesday.
Shortly afterward, Ebrard issued a statement saying police had prevented his representatives from entering where the party was counting the national poll ballots.
In another video shared on social media, Ebrard said the situation was becoming “more and more like the PRI”, or the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
The PRI ruled Mexico for 71 years until 2000, by which time it had become a byword for corruption.
Selecting 61-year-old Sheinbaum, a staunch ally of leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, would likely set the scene for Mexico to choose its first woman president.
Two polls on Tuesday gave her a clear lead over Ebrard.
The main opposition alliance last week selected as its presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez, a charismatic and unconventional senator of Indigenous origin who overcame an impoverished background to become a successful entrepreneur.
A resource nationalist, Lopez Obrador has centered the state in the economy, prioritizing public companies over foreign investors, expanding the army’s responsibilities and increasing social welfare spending to curb rampant inequality.
