The aspirants to the Presidency of Mexico received today with surprise the approval by the Electoral Tribunal of the candidacy of Jaime Rodríguez Calderón, previously denied by the referee of the elections of July 1.
The Electoral Tribunal of Mexico revoked by majority vote the decision of the Federal Electoral Institute (INE) to deny the initial registration to Rodriguez for failing to gather the required citizen support, and ordered him to include it in the presidential ballot.
In this way, some 89 million citizens will elect the president of Mexico from among five candidates: Ricardo Anaya, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Jose Antonio Meade, Margarita Zavala and Jaime Rodriguez, governor with license from the state of Nuevo Leon and known as “the Bronco ”
However, the number of presidential candidates is not final because the Court ordered the INE to grant 10 more days to the independent candidate Armando Ríos Piter to validate some 800,000 signatures of support that were discounted for irregularities.
Zavala, the only independent candidate who obtained the candidacy for fulfilling the INE’s filters without resorting to the Court, expressed her concern about “the uncertainty” that the decision of the judicial body generates in the electoral process.
“Now we have three candidates from the parties, a candidate from the Tribunal and a candidate from the citizens, I do not agree but I respect the electoral authorities,” Zavala said in the Twitter network.
Anaya, candidate for the National Action (PAN) coalition of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and Movimiento Ciudadano, said he was surprised but ruled out that Rodriguez’s candidacy could harm or benefit other candidates.
“Quite frankly, the matter did surprise me,” said Anaya, expressing her respect for the Tribunal, as well as her conviction that she will win the election in any of the electoral scenarios that may arise.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, leader of the polls and standard-bearer of the National Regeneration Movement (Brunette), allied with the parties of Labor (PT) and Social Encounter (PES), was upset by the court’s decision and described it as “one more spot to the tiger. ”
“It is a decision that the Court took very controversial, is the least one can say, very contrary to the cleanliness with which electoral processes must be carried out, but it has already taken,” he said.
The candidate of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in coalition with the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) and New Alliance, Jose Antonio Meade, declared himself respectful of the decisions of the Court and said that Rodriguez was welcome to the electoral contest.
The Business Coordinating Council (CCE) said that the candidacy of Rodriguez and the eventual Rios Piter are welcome because “Mexicans have the right to appeal to our institutions for justice.”
The Court’s decision “strengthens” a democratic system of institutions, assured the president of the CCE, Juan Pablo Castañón, in a press conference.
The analyst José Antonio Crespo said in his Twitter account that Rodriguez can take more votes from the PRI and the PAN than López Obrador, which he considered was not the intention of the Court but it can be the effect of his decision.
“It seems to me that the Tribunal will backfire, the Bronco is discredited as a cheat, will have a minimum vote,” he said.
On July 1, 89 million Mexicans will be summoned to the polls to elect the president of Mexico and will occupy another 3,400 positions in 30 of the 32 states of the country.
