April 2, 1999
The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY - The vote to elect the top leadership post for Mexico's ruling party was to have been a test of its newfound desire for internal democracy. In the end, it was barely even a vote.
There was one candidate on Tuesday's ballot, former labor Secretary Jose Gonzalez Fernandez, and he wasn't elected unanimously, local media reported. In his new post, Gonzalez Fernandez will oversee what the party promises will be its first open primary race for the 2000 presidential nomination.
Addressing party faithful after his election, Gonzalez Fernandez called on members to overcome their differences and praised what he called the first open race for the party leadership spot. In the past, the federal president has controlled party appointments.
Gonzalez Fernandez said the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, welcomes dissident factions and open debate, but he demanded party loyalty. PRI has run the executive branch without interruption for 70 years.
He also outlined what could be the party's 2000 political platform: more emphasis on social welfare for the country's poor after a decade of market-oriented policies and steadily falling wages.
``This is a party that is wounded by poverty and social inequality ... the government must not abandon the most needy,'' he said in a speech at the party's downtown Mexico City headquarters.
The only other candidate for the party presidency quit the race last week, arguing the elections were unfair.
The 288 members of the party's National Political Committee present for the election - out of about 360 total members - marked secret ballots and deposited them in transparent urns. Twenty-six members of the commission either left ballots blank or penciled in another name, but their votes were counted in the ``annulled votes'' category.
Gonzalez Fernandez announced his candidacy, received the support of the party's most influential circles and was allowed to leave his Cabinet post hours after the previous party president, Mariano Palacios, resigned earlier this month.
That left party mavericks complaining that President Ernesto Zedillo had orchestrated the election of Gonzalez Fernandez. Zedillo has also promised to end the tradition of outgoing presidents choosing the party's federal nominee.
While party members will be able to vote in primaries to select the nominee later this year, the leaders of the party's notoriously undemocratic farm, union and civic groups will apparently have an equal say in the choice.
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