Michoacán: Senator Silvano Aureoles PRD's candidate for governor

Senator Silvano Aureoles appears to have triumphed in the internal PRD election in Michoacán to be that party's candidate for governor, and with a surprisingly big margin: Around more than double the votes than the runner-up, local deputy Enrique Bautista Villegas, and the PRD's national election commission says the lead is irreversible. According to La Jornada Michoacán, Bautista will, however, impugn the result.

One thing should be celebrated: There was absolutely no violence during the electoral process, where more than half a million participated.

With 67 percent of votes counted Aureoles has 108,000 vs. Bautista's 54,000. What is notable is that AMLO's preferred candidate - Fabiola Alanís Sámano - has so far only pulled around 13,000 or so. One fear within the PRDs now that rather than accepting the loss, Alanis will jump on a separate PT-Convergencia ticket in the state's general election in November.

The election was also a loss, of sorts, for the Cárdenas family - Bautista was their preferred candidate, as he was in 2007.

Michoacán politics: New leader for state PRD elected with "consensus"

Given that Fabiola Alanís Sámano stepped down in order to compete for the PRD's gubernatorial candidacy,  the state council of the PRD's Michoacán branch voted to elect national deputy Víctor Báez Ceja its new president. Báez represents the internal group Movimiento de Unidad Cardenista founded by Michoacán's current governor, Leonel Godoy, and was as such very much the "chosen one."


The outgoing president Fabiola Alanís Sámano is considered an ardent supporter of AMLO, but it is far from clear that she has the backing of Godoy to be his successor as governor. 


Other strong candidates: Antonio Soto Sánchez, Enrique Bautista, and Raúl Morón Orozco. I personally could think of no better candidate than Antonio Soto.