Mexico City — The opposition Frente Amplio por México (Broad Front for Mexico) coalition that seeks to wrest the presidency from the ruling Morena party has cancelled its planned citizen consultation process to conclude the selection of its candidate for the 2024 elections, and which was scheduled for Sunday, September 3.
Marco Antonio Baños, a member of the coalition’s organizing committee, said Thursday he has received a document signed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), National Action Party (PAN) and Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the three parties that make up the coalition, agreeing to cancel the scheduled consultation.
“The committee has expressly determined and agreed with all the corresponding legal formalities that the [event] will not be held on September 3,” he said.
Representatives of the political group said in a press conference that on the morning of Sunday, September 3, they will hand over the certificate to Senator Xóchitl Gálvez that accredits her as the candidate to lead the opposition in the elections.
Gálvez won a poll among voters on August 30, with 57.6% of the vote, while her rival for the candidacy, PRI Senator Beatriz Paredes, received 42.4% of the vote. That process was originally intended to precede another consultation on Sunday, but which will no longer take place.
Beatriz Paredes reacts
On Thursday afternoon, Paredes tweeted a message in which she expressed her “respect and recognition of Xóchitl Gálvez”, but without explicitly backing Gálvez’s candidacy.
“I appreciate her careful expressions toward me and value our agreements. Let’s move forward for the good of Mexico,” Paredes stated in the tweet.
“How the process will conclude is a question for the organizing committee, and not for those of us who are candidates,” she added.
Minutes later, Gálvez tweeted a photo of herself and Paredes, stating “in the Frente Amplio por México we are united”.
The elections are scheduled to take place on June 2, 2024.
The Morena party will announce its candidacy on September 6.
