Independent Candidates Threaten to Break Grip of Mexico’s Parties in Next Election Jan-Albert Hootsen - America Press
go to original November 6, 2017

The list of aspirants and independent candidates for the Mexican Presidency is increasing, unlike most political parties, which have failed to establish their representatives for the 2018 elections (Elizabeth Mayoral)

A disgruntled former first lady who recently left her party after leadership struggles. An indigenous woman supported by a decades-old guerrilla movement. A tough-talking governor with a love for cowboy romanticism. Next year’s Mexican election will host a broader and more diverse group of presidential hopefuls than ever before. For the first time in the country’s recent history, independent candidates without a party affiliation are allowed to participate.

It’s an innovation some observers say is badly needed, as Mexico’s traditional political parties have been deeply discredited by corruption scandals and cronyism. Others, however, believe independent candidacies will do little to change the country’s dysfunctional democracy.

“I believe it’s a significant development, something that may force the political establishment into a new direction,” Fernando Dworak, a political scientist and commentator for Politico Mexico, told America. “But it’s also dangerous to expect too much of them.”

Much will be at stake when Mexicans go to the polls on July 1, 2018. They will vote for a new president, Chamber of Deputies and Senate, as well as for hundreds of other elected officials at the state and municipal levels. The election is expected to be one of the most hotly contested since the country’s transition to democracy in 2000.

Early polling suggests that the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (P.R.I.) of President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is constitutionally barred from re-election, faces an uphill battle to retain power. The nation has been riven by a seemingly endless series of corruption scandals and has endured sluggish economic growth. And with this year threatening to become the most violent year in recent memory as the more-than-a-decade-long drug war grinds on, Mexicans are hungry for change.

Read the rest at America Press

Related: Garibay Camarena: Why Mexico’s Independent Candidates Have Failed so Miserably (PanAm Post)

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