Mexico's rightwing party the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), is doing exactly what its left counterpart the PRD undertook last year: A purge of its party rolls, long outdated and bloated, and prone to manipulation. It's about time.
The party's devastating internal fights over national candidacies ahead of the July 1, 2012 federal election exposed a party that is only a shadow of its former self: Massive corruption, vote-buying, coercion, and a rash of truly indigestible candidates, whose incompetence and corruption should ban then from even serving as ticket takers at the local movie theater, let alone national lawmakers.
While he turned a blind eye to much of this, in order to at least try to curb the practices of clientelism and vote-buying, PAN leader Gustavo Madero, is launching a campaign where members will have to reaffirm their membership, and where the burden thus falls on the individual member to do so: Prove that you exist and that you are an active member so that we know you're real -and the burden of proof falls on the member, who will have to appear in person with party and voter credentials at their local office, or else.
Jan. 6, 2012, the party will publish its "updated" membership rolls. Madero suggested its membership rolls may well be cut in half. It will be very interesting to see what states these "ghost members" will particularly appear in. My money is on Veracruz and Nuevo León in particular
Source:
Inicia PAN depuración de padrón de afiliados. El Universal, Oct. 1, 2012
AN puede reducir 50% su padrón. El Universal, Oct. 2, 2012
