Mexican Ruling Party’s Presidential Candidates Wrap Up Campaigns Ahead of Poll

The candidates vying to represent Mexico’s ruling Morena party in the 2024 elections made their last bids to voters Sunday before a nationwide survey begins to select the flag bearer

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Bloomberg — The presidential candidates for Mexico’s ruling party made their last bids to voters before a nationwide survey begins to determine whom the party will select to represent it in the 2024 election.

The Morena party of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is not eligible to run again next year, has decided that candidates will have to end their campaign tours this weekend. In a process marred by accusations that the party leadership had played favorites, it was the last chance for the six candidates from Morena and its allied parties to appeal to the undecided.

Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who has led in most polls so far, headed to Veracruz state on the east coast, while ex-Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, another top candidate, ended his tour on Sunday with a speech at an auditorium in Mexico City.

Morena will announce its pick on Sept. 6. Whoever ends up with greater support in the nationwide survey will be designated the party’s national coordinator, since it’s too early to announce formal candidates under election rules.

The party approved four external polling companies that will conduct surveys to determine who will be their candidate for the 2024 presidential elections. The four companies selected via lottery had been proposed by presidential candidates Claudia Sheinbaum, Marcelo Ebrard, Manuel Velasco and Adán Augusto Lopez.

In response to accusations that the polling firms chosen to help measure voter sentiment might be biased, party leader Mario Delgado told reporters that the process will be carried out with “transparency and a great deal of professionalism.”

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