Three new political parties have debuted in Mexico – two of them on opposing ends of the ideological scale.
The Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena), Partido Encuentro Social (PES) and Partido Humanista (PFH) will give voters additional options at the ballot box but their emergence on the national political scene has not been welcomed by some citizens who say most minor parties are parasites simply looking to gets their hands of free public funds.
Over the next five months the three parties will pocket a combined total of 109 million pesos from federal coffers. More cash will be available once next year’s election season starts.
Nine parties will be now able to contest the 2015 midterm elections. To maintain their registration they will be obliged to obtain three percent of the vote.
Morena
Morena started as a political movement led by two-time presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador (see photo right). The fiery veteran left-wing politician broke ranks with the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in the wake of his disappointing third-place finish in the 2012 election.
After announcing his intention to turn Morena into a political party, López Obrador had hoped to sign up one million grass-roots supporters amassed during his years of campaigning up and down the country. By the time it came to register as a political party, Morena had 131,205 affilates.
How Morena fares in the 2015 midterms will give a clearer indication on whether 60-year-old Lopez Obrador still has a future in Mexican politics. If he fails to wrest many votes from the left-of-center PRD or the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) then we may have seen the last of this charismatic defender for the rights of the oppressed.
PES
The far-right Partido Encuentro Social began as a local party in the state of Baja California en 2006. It calls itself a party based on “family values” with a focus on “social development” and “freedom of conscience and religion.”
Most of its founders and members are evangelical Christians, although they say the party does not follow a religious ideology and welcomes members of all faiths.
The party has fought in local elections and has one representative in the Baja California legislature, as well as councilors in Mexicali, Ensenada, Rosarito and Tijuana.
In previous Baja California elections the PES has been criticized for its expedient electoral alliances with both the PRI and the PAN. Neither, however, flourished and Flores said that supporting former president Felipe Calderon was a mistake. “We never thought he was going to lead such an inhumane government.”
The PES was expected to face scrutiny in its bid for national recognition as its founder Hugo Erick Flores is a neopentecostal pastor and preacher and the party’s original logo incorporated the Christian ichtus (fish) symbol. Under the Mexican Constitution, religious organizations are barred from participating in politics.
Flores has said that party members’ main concern is “the economic, social, political and moral decomposition of the country.”
The party’s elected representatives in Baja have been active campaigners against moves to relax abortion laws and approve same-sex marriage.
The INE eventually ruled that many of PES’ members, although openly evangelist, were participating in the political sphere as private citizens. The PES has 94,305 registered affiliates.
Partido Humanista
The Partido Humanista began life as a nonprofit group in Mexico City that promoted “public participation in democratic life.” It is led by Yris Salomón, a former leader of the Confederación Nacional Campesina (CNC), the union of farm workers affiliated to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Its webpage notes that “humanism is a viable option … that ought to be reflected in the actual political system.” The party has 77,489 registered affiliates. It is expected to forge an alliance with the PRI or PRD in 2015.
In other politic news:
Left wing firebrand rallies Chapla
Andrés Manuel López Obrador (right), leader of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) – now a formal political party (as mentioned above) – appeared as headline speaker at a rally held Friday, July 18 at the Chapala Malecon forum as part of a four-day statewide swing organized to drum up support for a national referendum on the sweeping energy reform legislation spearheaded by President Enrique Peña Nieto. The two-time presidential candidate is traveling the country in a drive to collect two million signatures that would oblige the government to put a question on 2015 federal election ballot asking: “Do you agree or disagree that contracts or concessions should be given to private national or foreign investors for the exploitation of petroleum, gas, refining, petrochemicals and the electric industry?” Local Morena sympathizers are continuing the effort with door-to-door campaign to get more names on the petition.