Mexico's old ruling party gets new leader close to president
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The internal leadership election for Mexico's old ruling party was apparently won Sunday by the governor of the southern state of Campeche, who is seen as close to current President Andres Manuel López Obrador.
An exit poll by the polling firm Consulta Mitofsky pointed to a wide victory for Gov. Alejandro Moreno in the vote to lead the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
The party known as the PRI ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000, then regained the presidency in 2012-2018. López Obrador's crushing victory last year stunned the PRI.
Moreno's apparent victory suggests the PRI may become a sort of loyal opposition or satellite party for López Obrador. The president's own Morena party lacks the PRI's experience, discipline and political machinery.
In a speech claiming victory, Moreno pledged that under his leadership, the PRI would be "a strong, critical assertive opposition."
Having a loyal opposition would help López Obrador deflect accusations that he is concentrating too much power in his own hands. The president has been hostile to oversight and regulatory agencies, calling them overpaid and wasteful.
A former PRI member himself, López Obrador may have more in common with the old, charismatic style of the PRI than he does with disparate collection of ideologues and mid-level opposition figures from which he cobbled together the Morena party.
