A political movement opposed to the government of President López Obrador announced Wednesday it will seek to convince opposition parties to band together and put forward a common candidate to contest the 2024 presidential election.
The leaders of Sí por México (Yes for Mexico) said they will seek an alliance between the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the Citizens Movement (MC) party.
“The goal is to have a large opposition coalition …” said Gustavo de Hoyos, former president of the Mexican Employers Federation.
Speaking at an event in Mexico City to mark the first anniversary of the formation of Sí por México, de Hoyos said that other opposition forces could also join the coalition, adding that the objective is to kick the ruling Morena party out of office in 2024.
“We want to have a unity presidential candidate of the entire opposition in order to win in 2024,” he said, without offering the names of any possible contenders.
Claudio X. González, a businessman and another Sí por México leader, claimed that the opposition is well positioned to win government in 2024.
He noted that the PAN-PRI-PRD alliance that contested this year’s midterm elections under the Va por México (Go for Mexico) banner achieved its main objective of stripping Morena and its allies of its supermajority in the lower house of Congress.
That result, González added, will avoid the approval of constitutional reforms that are harmful for the country. The businessman, an outspoken critic of López Obrador and his government, also said the PAN, PRI, PRD and MC garnered approximately 2 million more votes than Morena at the midterm elections.
“The opposition defeated the ruling party at the June 6 election,” he said, although Morena retained control of the Chamber of Deputies and won 10 of 15 gubernatorial races.
“The main lesson we learned at the last election is that Morena is not invincible and that the opposition – Va por México and Citizens Movement, in other words – can win the presidential election together and the mayoralty of Mexico City in 2024,” González said.
If opposition parties do decide to support a common candidate – 2018 presidential candidate and former PAN lawmaker Ricardo Anaya currently appears to be the most likely choice – he or she will most likely come up against current Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum or Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, suggests a new national telephone poll conducted by the newspaper El Universal.
Asked who they would like to be Morena’s candidate, 42.5% of respondents who identified themselves as supporters of the ruling party said Sheinbaum, while 31.3% said Ebrard.
The only other two possible candidates mentioned, Morena Senate leader Ricardo Monreal and Interior Minister Adán Augusto López, garnered minimal support among those polled.
Asked which party they would vote for if the presidential election was held today, 35.3% of 1,200 respondents said Morena compared to just 14.4% who nominated the PAN, 9% who cited the PRI and 2% who mentioned MC. The PRD garnered less than 1% support. Those results indicate that even a single candidate supported by all opposition parties will not attract enough support to defeat the Morena’s flag bearer in 2024.
Morena came out on top in five of six scenarios in which poll respondents were asked to select a candidate.
Sheinbaum, Ebrard and Monreal all prevailed in mock races against candidates including Anaya, México state Governor Alfredo del Mazo, Nuevo León Governor Samuel García, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro and former first lady Margarita Zavala.
The only scenario in which the Morena candidate didn’t prevail was when Adán López was pitted against Monterrey Mayor Luis Donaldo Colosio Rojas, former Querétaro governor Francisco Domínguez and PRI national president and former Campeche governor Alejandro Moreno.
In that mock race, López – who recently left his position as governor of Tabasco to become interior minister – finished second to the proposed MC candidate – Luis Colosio, the 36-year-old son of Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, a PRI presidential candidate who was assassinated in Tijuana in 1994.
Among the other poll findings was that 80.1% of respondents agreed that it’s time for a woman to become president of Mexico.
Among possible women candidates, Sheinbaum – a protégé and close ally of López Obrador – appears best placed to become the country’s first ever female president.
With reports from Expansión Política and El Universal
