The arrogance of Carla Humphrey finally brought her down: It is now clear that she utterly blew her chances of becoming president of the Instituto Electoral del Distrito Federal (IEDF), the important electoral institute for Mexico City, by accompanying her husband Roberto Gil when he registered to become a candidate for the national presidency of PAN last week. El Universal reports that outgoing President Claudia Zavala, who was elected in 2008 with no possibility of reelection, changed the preference she had declared for Humphrey last week, in favor of Gustavo Anzaldo, who with Zavala's vote got the necessary majority to be the new president of IEDF.
Whether it was a case hubris or just sheer stupidity is hard to ascertain, but it is a quite remarkable display of arrogance that Carla Astrid Humphrey Jordan didn't think her blatant display of partisanship would not have repercussions, with the added insult to injury that she was not only a member of the electoral institute but moreover sought to be its president. Following Zavala's changed vote, Humphrey angrily declared,
"Your attitude, councilor Zavala, does not affect me, but weakens the deliberative and decision-making processes of the institute.You, by changing the meaning of the word you gave at a meeting of the council members, vioalte the institutes internal life, its autonomy."
It is quite remarkable to hear Humphrey, whose actions, if elected, would have risked destroying any perception of IEDF's autonomy and impartiality, accuse Zavala of weakening the institute.
Yet the issue does not stop there: 39 deputies of the Mexico City legislature, from PRD, PRI, PT, PVEM, and PANAL, in a far-to rare display of agreement, presented to the assembly's legislative commission a request to have Humphrey removed as an IEDF legislator all together.
And PAN?PAN meekly retorted that the other parties were engaging in "machismo."
It is hard to believe the panistas believe their own charge. Oh, the joys of schadenfreude.
The Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), in stark contrast to, say, the PRD, has always been known for its orderly transitions from one party president to another. One of the major reasons for this, in this blogger's opinion, is the fact that PAN uses a majority vote by its 381-member national council, while PRD, despite attempts at reform, insists on open election by mass vote, which with no exception has turned into disasters.
However, even with such an institutional mechanism, the leadership fight within the PAN is looking increasingly bitter. The party has now five official candidates: Roberto Gil, Gustavo Madero, Francisco Ramírez Acuña, Cecilia Romero, and Blanca Judith Díaz. Last week, Senator Judith Díaz impugned the candidacy of Roberto Gil on the grounds that he has been a member of PAN for less than three years, and is such does not fulfill the requisite to be a leader of the party. According to party statutes, a minimum of three years is required to be a member of the national council, though no mention is made of the president - though given PAN's history as a highly institutionalized and follow-the-rules party, it is so obvious that the party president should also fulfill this requirement that it is not even put in writing. Why, after all, should this apply only to councilors, but not to the party's president?
(Note, however, Federico Berrueto's groveling column where he bends over backward [or forward, if one prefers] in a pretty pathetic attempt to downplay and dismiss this criterion).
Following the last-minute declaration by Roberto Gil to be a candidate, all the other candidates have now teamed up against him, arguing that the membership criterion must be "analyzed." In response, outgoing party president César Nava said that the national executive committee will send the case to the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF), the country's highest electoral court, which also has rules on internal affairs of Mexico's political parties.
As a side note, though an important one, the PRD and PRI are up in arms, and understandably so, after Gil's wife Carla Astrid Humphrey Jordan - yes, that is her real name - accompanied her hubby for the PAN registration event. Ms. Humphrey is also an electoral councilor of the state electoral institute in the Federal District (IEDF), who moreover is seeking to become president(!) of the institute - despite this quite blatant evidencing of her lack of distance to the PAN - which is quite literal, as she is sleeping with the man who might be PAN's national president!
As for the PAN's presidential struggle, by appealing to this external institution, it is quite notable that the party is deviating from its usual cool script in that it is no longer able to solve its own internal differences. Should his opponents succeed in blocking Gil, who is the candidate of Calderón, it will surely mean that calderonismo, already on the wane within the PAN, has lost its dominance over the party definitely.
