Showing posts with label José González Morfín. Show all posts
Showing posts with label José González Morfín. Show all posts
Friday, September 2, 2011
Manlio out: New head of Mexican senate is José González Morfín
It's in its last year - it was elected in 2006 - and Manlio Fabio Beltrones stepped down to be relieved by José González Morfín as probably the last head of this Mexican Senate.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
The "citizen candidacy" debate
Senator José González Morfín, who is the head of PAN's group in the Senate, came out strongly in favor of "citizen candidacies," that is, candidates not emanating from parties, for elected office, and claimed PAN's 40-strong group of senators would back this.
González Morfín touch upon the conventional arguments: Yes, Mexicans have a constitutional right to be candidates, but are blocked from being so unless they go through a party; this is anti-democratic, etc.
The senator said PAN would back non-party, "citizen" candidates on all levels - mayors, deputies, senators, even the president. He criticized a proposal from PRI that went in the other direction, requiring 18 months of party membership before being allowed to run for office.
In a time of (or perennial?) discontent with political parties, such proposals do strike a chord and certainly warrant a hearing. But for all the talk of the glories of a "citizen," non-party candidate for the presidency, no mention is made of the potential negative implications of this.
For one, in Mexico, one can imagine a situation where a "citizen" candidate, riding a wave of anti-party sentiments, can simply, through means legal or not, "buy" him or herself the presidency. What if the narcos decide to postulate a candidate? El Chapo throwing his billions behind a person promising to put an end to the drug war and withdraw the army? It may sound and be far fetched, but let's keep in mind that parties, for all their flaws, do function as some kind of filter here.
But let us also look to Latin America: What have been the consequences of these "citizen" candidates? The cases of Alberto Fujimori and Fernando Collor de Mello, non-party presidents of Peru and Brazil, leap to mind. Even if the candidate would be a competent democrat, they would face likely problems of not having legislative backing from a reliable party. And what if they are outright criminals like Fujimori and Collor de Mello, elected on what they claimed to be a mandate to rule as they pleased? The results were not pretty.
By all means: There are arguments to be made for allowing citizen candidates. But so far there has been virtually no mention of the potential pitfalls of "anti-party" candidates, which need to be brought into the debate.
González Morfín touch upon the conventional arguments: Yes, Mexicans have a constitutional right to be candidates, but are blocked from being so unless they go through a party; this is anti-democratic, etc.
The senator said PAN would back non-party, "citizen" candidates on all levels - mayors, deputies, senators, even the president. He criticized a proposal from PRI that went in the other direction, requiring 18 months of party membership before being allowed to run for office.
In a time of (or perennial?) discontent with political parties, such proposals do strike a chord and certainly warrant a hearing. But for all the talk of the glories of a "citizen," non-party candidate for the presidency, no mention is made of the potential negative implications of this.
For one, in Mexico, one can imagine a situation where a "citizen" candidate, riding a wave of anti-party sentiments, can simply, through means legal or not, "buy" him or herself the presidency. What if the narcos decide to postulate a candidate? El Chapo throwing his billions behind a person promising to put an end to the drug war and withdraw the army? It may sound and be far fetched, but let's keep in mind that parties, for all their flaws, do function as some kind of filter here.
But let us also look to Latin America: What have been the consequences of these "citizen" candidates? The cases of Alberto Fujimori and Fernando Collor de Mello, non-party presidents of Peru and Brazil, leap to mind. Even if the candidate would be a competent democrat, they would face likely problems of not having legislative backing from a reliable party. And what if they are outright criminals like Fujimori and Collor de Mello, elected on what they claimed to be a mandate to rule as they pleased? The results were not pretty.
By all means: There are arguments to be made for allowing citizen candidates. But so far there has been virtually no mention of the potential pitfalls of "anti-party" candidates, which need to be brought into the debate.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Manlio Fabio Beltrones, new president of the Mexican Senate
Manlio Fabio Beltrones was elected new president of the Mexican senate, on his birthday no less. Expect him to use this position at every occasion to promote his bid to become the PRI's candidate for president in 2012. His first occasion to do so will be in his "reply" to President Felipe Calderón's "Informe," equivalent to the State of the Union, which will be delivered to the Senate. Beltrones pointedly refused to attend the recent "Security Dialogue" convoked by Calderón.
(Ricardo Monreal, who was a PRD senator until he left it for the PT in December 2008, put up a clownish show to protest the PT's exclusion from the Senate directorate).
(On Sunday, José González Morfín was elected new PAN group leader, replacing Gustavo Madero who will compete for the PAN's national presidency. González Morfín was elected by unanimity.)
While it was the PRI's turn to preside over the Senate, its usurping of the presidency of the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, is a whole other matter. Jesús Ortega, president of PRD whose turn had come to preside over the chamber's directorate, yesterday met with members of the Supreme Court, as the party is analyzing taking legal action to obtain what is their rightful turn.
One question remains: Will Alejandro Encinas be fully behind the PRD's quest to head the directorate, or has AMLO already instructed him to block Jesús Zambrano, of the opposing Nueva Izquierda faction, from assuming this powerful position? The PRD's internal war, far from over, is merely heating up ahead of the battle over the 2012 candidacy nomination, and AMLO has on numerous occasions demonstrated he will torpedo his old party if it favors his own agenda.
(Ricardo Monreal, who was a PRD senator until he left it for the PT in December 2008, put up a clownish show to protest the PT's exclusion from the Senate directorate).
(On Sunday, José González Morfín was elected new PAN group leader, replacing Gustavo Madero who will compete for the PAN's national presidency. González Morfín was elected by unanimity.)
While it was the PRI's turn to preside over the Senate, its usurping of the presidency of the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, is a whole other matter. Jesús Ortega, president of PRD whose turn had come to preside over the chamber's directorate, yesterday met with members of the Supreme Court, as the party is analyzing taking legal action to obtain what is their rightful turn.
One question remains: Will Alejandro Encinas be fully behind the PRD's quest to head the directorate, or has AMLO already instructed him to block Jesús Zambrano, of the opposing Nueva Izquierda faction, from assuming this powerful position? The PRD's internal war, far from over, is merely heating up ahead of the battle over the 2012 candidacy nomination, and AMLO has on numerous occasions demonstrated he will torpedo his old party if it favors his own agenda.
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