New legislation that allows independent candidates to enter the race to become Mexico’s next president has prompted a flurry of registrations from wannabes, the majority of whom stand little or no chance of ever stepping foot in Los Pinos (Mexico’s equivalent of the White House).
The most credible of 40 independent candidates given a green light by the National Electoral Institute (INE) last week to move on to the next phase of the process turned up in Guadalajara Wednesday, attracting plenty of media buzz as she set about collecting “signatures” in the Plaza de la Liberation.
Margarita Zavala, the wife of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon, has decided to walk away from her party, the conservative Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), and fight her corner as an independent. A 33-year member of the PAN, Zavala looked for all intents and purposes to be the frontrunner to represent her party in next year’s election until she had a major falling out with Ricardo Anaya, the PAN’s national president.
Going it alone and separating herself from her husband’s controversial six-year presidency could work to Zavala’s advantage, especially with female voters, political analysts say.
More than 100,000 people died after Calderon initiated a crusade against the nation’s powerful drug cartels under strong pressure from the United States. While the policy was greeted enthusiastically in Washington, Mexicans grew weary of the constant violence and Calderon’s standing and legacy suffered as a result.
Zavala chose Jalisco to kick off her task of obtaining 880,000 signatures over the next 120 days to support her independent candidacy. Here she enjoys the backing of many “old-style” members of the PAN who have seen their influence in the party wane in recent years. Among the first to “sign up” digitally on Wednesday was Alberto Cardenas, the first PAN governor of Jalisco, who in 1994 ended six decades of rule in the state by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Talking to reporters, Cardenas expressed the hope that the PAN leadership would not start a “witch hunt” against members like himself who decide to support independent candidates in next year’s election. Cardenas described Zavala as a “humanist” and “la más panista de todas las panistas” – meaning that her values are more in tune with the party’s socially conservative values than the majority of its members.
Among other independents hoping to gather enough signatures to make a run at the presidency are Nuevo León Governor Jaime Rodríguez Calderón (“El Bronco”); Senator Armando Ríos Piter; María de Jesús “Marichuy” Patricio Martínez, an indigenous (nahua) faithhealer from Tuxpán, Jalisco; and well-known broadcaster Pedro Ferriz de Con.