In a Mexico weary of the increase in violence, insecurity and corruption, the four candidates for the Presidency, two in rallies and two through social networks, officially began today the contest to conquer a skeptical electorate with a view to voting from July 1.
After a pre-campaign full of attacks, accusations and limited proposals, the four aspirants seek to lead the country in the 2018-2024 term, with enormous challenges for the winner.
This Friday, the newspaper Reforma published as a main theme that eight months after the end of the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto, the number of intentional homicides in Mexico “practically equals” the one that existed during the entire administration of his predecessor, Felipe Calderón. (2006-2012).
The publication indicated that during Calderón’s administration, 102,859 murders were recorded, while in Peña Nieto 102,327 were recorded, according to statistics from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System.
Responses and solutions to contain violence, insecurity, drug trafficking, corruption, as well as proposals on specific issues such as health, education, work and social issues, among others, are expected by potential voters.
The leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO as he is known, a recalcitrant opponent and critic of the Government, leaves as a favorite in the intention to vote in a poll in which the official candidate, Jose Antonio Meade, starts in third position.
Meanwhile, the conservative Anaya enters the final stretch of the race in second place of preferences.
The teams of Anaya and Meade have been engaged since December in a war of accusations of corruption without evidence, which has allowed López Obrador to remain first in the polls, which show a proportion of undecided between 20 and 28%.
In the first minutes of Friday, the official date for the start of the campaigns (they will close on June 27), Anaya, from the “Por México al Frente” coalition that make up the National Action (PAN), Democratic Revolution (PRD) parties and Movimiento Ciudadano, and Margarita Zavala, wife of ex-president Calderón and independent candidate, headed two acts in the capital.
“We are going to achieve the Presidency and we will achieve what seems impossible: defeat the machinery of the parties,” Zavala said.
Anaya established as central points of her campaign the fight against corruption, violence and insecurity, and undertook to seek solutions to end inequality.
Meade and López Obrador issued messages on their social networks to inform that they would respect the celebrations of Holy Week, and begin their activities this Sunday, April 1.
López Obrador, candidate for the “Juntos Haremos Historia” coalition, which is part of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and the Labor and Social Encounter parties, will start his campaign in Ciudad Juárez, northern state of Chihuahua.
In turn, Meade, leader of the “Todos por México” coalition that makes up the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Verde Ecologista Mexicano (PVEM) and Nueva Alianza, will embark on its uphill road in Mérida, Yucatán (southeast).
The elections of July 1 are emerging as the largest in the history of Mexico, both by the number of disputed charges (3.404) and the number of voters (88.3 million) and its stratospheric financial cost, located in around of 1,217 million dollars.
It is the largest budget in history requested by the National Electoral Institute for the organization of elections.
Voters will outline that day Mexico to the third decade of the twenty-first century to elect the president for the period 2018-2024, 500 deputies and 128 senators of Congress.
In addition, they will be elected governors in nine states, state congresses, and presidencies and municipal councils in 30 of the 32 states of the country. efe
