More on PRD internal election, in bullet form

* The heads of the PRD factions meet to lick their wounds and attempt a "reconciliation," with new elections scheduled for next weekend in the five states where they were not held this Sunday.

* But Dolores Padierna/René Bejarano of the IDN faction, which has caused so much trouble and discredit of the party, was not there.

* Earlier, IDN claimed it had intercepted a trailer or two of handouts, but offered no evidence, nor did it report the alleged incident to the authorities.

* And in a very open attack on Ebrard, IDN even demanded that Ebrard leave the PRD!

* Former party president Jesús Ortega blamed IDN for the turmoil this past weekend, arguing it is part of IDN's strategy to discredit the PRD and Ebrard in order to promote the candidacy of AMLO.

* Pro-AMLO groups also demand the cancellation of election in other states where it appears their opponents won.

* The Mexico City government, through Secretary of Government José Ángel Ávila, denied that it had anything to do with the elections.

* Marcelo Ebrard, from Kuwait: The 2012 candidacy will not be decided by "whomever screams the loudest," the perennial strategy of Padierna et al.

* PRD in Mexico City, its main bastion, continues in an absolute mess, directly a result of the fights between pro-anti Ebrard factions.

All, in other words, is normal in the PRD

Display of strength for Ebrard, as the "movement" mobilizes for AMLO

The unofficial launch of Marcelo Ebrard's campaign took place yesterday, as the Demócratas de Izquierda, or the Democrats of the Left, arranged an event attended by more than 2,500 people that included the governors of Sinaloa and Guerrero, as well as as a range of backers and politicians, many from outside the PRD.

Ebrard proclaimed in very general terms the contours of his national plan, but was at pains to explain it was not a campaign launch- which of course it was.  Notably, he also appeared to call for some variant of parliamentarism - or "to separate the chief of state from chief of government" - which to me is an absolutely marvelous idea, as long as it does not end in a semi-presidential regime.

What a perfect illustration of the two paths for the left to follow: On the one hand, Ebrard and the coalition of social-democratic party factions in the Demócratas - and on the other, the highly discredited René Bejarano and his clientelistic "movement," who after holding meetings all over Mexico went to Tabasco the same day to back AMLO's electoral project.

Bejarano claims to have more than two million people in his National Movement of Hope, which he offers in order to back AMLO's candidacy (though at the same time confirming that many of them are also members of AMLO's own movement MORENA).

His wife, Dolores Padierna, is head of the IDN party faction of the PRD - involved in virtually every one of PRD's scandals the past decade - which backs AMLO. She is, to add, the secretary general of the PRD, while party president Jesús Zambrano is the president of the party - and attended Ebrard's event.

The two paths for the Mexican left have never appeared more clear.

PRD internal election: Despite outcome, election itself big step forward

One thing to note: PRD finally moved away from the highly destructive method of electing its leadership by mass party votes, which with no single exception has ended in turmoil, fights, fraud accusations, and general disaster for party unity and the party's general image. Now, the PRD's national council instead voted - and access was restricted to the plenary only through an emergency exit, credentials checked and double checked, and after depositing the vote, each councilor had indelible ink applied to the thumb, to avoid another cochinero. And when all is said and done: It worked.

First round:  154 votes for Jesús Zambrano, 111 for Dolores Padierna, and 43 for Armando Ríos Piter.
As no 2/3 majority reached - and would not be reached for either candidate - a deal was struck for a Zambrano-Padierna compromise ticket. This received 233 votes in favor and 36 against.

The PRD also voted to ban any alliance with PAN and PRI in 2012 - so now that's official, despite AMLO's insistence that he has secret information that PRD wants a PRD-PAN formula in 2012.

Other than that, the party postponed remaining business, such as who will fill the posts on its national Secretariat, and its National Political Commission. Given the drama over the weekend, no wonder.

The PRD's new party president: Candidates ready

As announced on Dec 17, all of PRD´s main party factions agreed that the election for the successor to current PRD president Jesús Ortega will take place at the latest on March 19, and that the winner will immediately take office. This was a step forward: Right up until the last minute, the "radicals" in the PRD, most of whom are supporters of AMLO more than they are true backers of the PRD, threatened physical violence to force Ortega to step down. This particular segment of the PRD, led above all by the scandal-prone corriente IDN of René Bejarano-Dolores Padierna, has issued similar threats, and acted upon then, on numerous other occasions. It should be noted here that the March election is actually a concession from the Ortega camp: After all, he was elected for a three-year tenure in March 2008, yet was unable to take office until the end of that year due to the failure of the "radicals" (the quotation mark is there for a purpose: Many of them are highly socially conservative) to accept Ortega´s victory.

Three main candidates have now been lined up: Jesús Zambrano, national deputy for the party and member of Ortega´s social-democratic Nueva Izquierda wing; Hortensia Aragón, current secretary general of the party and of the Foro Nuevo Sol faction, which is currently allied with Ortega though it has been quite opportunistic in recent years in order to maintain its presence in the Mexico City government; and Dolores Padierna of the Izquierda Democrática Nacional. 

The method by which the new party president will be elected has not yet been determined, though one alternative aired is by a 2/3 vote in the PRD's national council, where Ortega and his allies has a majority but not a 2/3 one. 

My own thoughts: The party must at all costs avoid a divisive election by the mass base, which on every occasion has proved a disaster. Yet as El Universal notes, merely agreeing on the type of election brings the risk of rupture in itself. This is, in essence, the product of the the uneasy marriage between social democratic and left-leaning party builders on the one hand, and the anti-institutional and often populist movement-advocates, on the other, which has been the main source of the PRD's internal woes ever since its birth in 1989.

Why the Mexican left may lose Mexico City in 2012

A couple of weeks ago, a presentation was held in Mexico for a new party called "Partido de la Ciudad" in Mexico City, which ostensibly seek to present a new "leftwing" alternative to PRD. The party is founded by ex-PRD members René Arce - still a senator for the party - and Víctor Hugo Círigo, who until 2009 headed the Mexico City legislature. The party is not yet officially registered and not much exists beyond its name, but at is "premiere," if one may, in a meeting held Nov. 14, the party attracted ex Partido Socialdemócrata (PSD members such as Alberto Begné, Robles Maloof and Adrián Lajous, but also in front row, notably panistas such as the nefarious PAN Senator Federico Döring, as well as Minerva Hernández, now a senator for PAN after she unceremoniously dumped the party that had here elected, PRD, and former national PRD deputy Ruth Zavalea, who is now campaigning for the PRI in Guerrero.

PSD, for one, is now extinct as a national party, but some groupings exist on the state level. However, its former national leader, Jorge Carlos Díaz, just announced that the new Partido de la Ciudady would be formed only in the Federal District, and will have a "progressive" profile, above all in favor of legalization of "all drugs."

The idea that Mexico City needs another socially liberal "progressive" party to further this agenda in Mexico City is quite suspect. The party will obviously sap votes from the PRD, and may at best, should it be registered, get a few seats in the Mexico City legislature, but at worst, should it present its own candidate for Mexico City mayor, provoke a split in the left that may allow a PAN or even PRI candidate for winning the 2012 elections. The PRD in Mexico City is, with the exception of the more socially conservatives backing AMLO's faction, a highly liberal party, socially speaking, having successfully pushed gay and women rights, including gay marriage and abortion rights. Many also favor decriminalization or even legalization. What are the true motives behind this new party?

Also, yesterday it was reported that Izquierda Democrática Nacional (IDN), the heavily clientelist and "social-movement"-based faction of the PRD led by René Bejarano (he of the 2004 dollar-stuffing fame), announced it will launch its own candidate for Mexico City mayor 2012.

Current mayor Ebrard will need the backing of the clientelist structures in IDN to have his successor elected, as well as to back his 2012 bid, and this may all simply be some posturing part of the bargaining process - it will not come for free - yet could also possibly bye  a step toward creating its own party based on IDN and Bejarano's own Movimiento Nacional por la Esperanza (MNE)

(Bejarano, notably, was expelled from the PRD and when I asked his wife Dolores Padierna a while back if he was involved in any PRD activities, she brushed it off. Padierna is nominally the head of IDN, but it is obvious that Bejarano pulls the threads. Of note, the IDN is pushing for Dolores Padierna to be a senatorial candidate for the PRD(!) - she is such a controversial, and unfit, choice that even AMLO in 2006 vetoed this.)

While the two groupings - the "Partido de la Ciudad" by the Cïrigo/Arce brothers, and the IDN/MNE by the Bejaranos - may have different motivations, they may well succeed in tearing the PRD and the left apart in Mexico City, and hand it to the opposition. It seems pertinent to ask: Is this also their goal?

La Jornada and AMLO: An admiration that distorts its journalistic mission

La Jornada is a very important Mexican newspaper that reports on stories of social interest often neglected by the other large newspapers. It's advocacy for democracy, ever since its 1984 inception, is admirable.

Yet La Jornada's excessive admiration for AMLO has at times reached such heights that it seriously distorts political reality. Take for instance La Jornada's coverage of this weekend's meeting of the PRD's National Council, which is undergoing - as it has for two decades - a brutal fight between the movement-advocates behind AMLO and the party-building social democrats behind Jesús Ortega. According to reporter Alma Muñoz, who has covered the PRD for a long time and should know - I am convinced she does - better:

"In a press conference [Ortega] unveiled two resolutory points, supposedly approved during the sessions of the national council, adjourned indefinitely  due to a lack of consensus among the party factions: There will be no elections December 5, and the policy of alliances will be maintained, after [Ortega's] group impeded that these subjects were part of the order of the day."

Where does one start... First, why "supposedly"? These resolutions were duly voted over by the entire national council, and the final vote tally was 146-97 and 142-93 against, respectively, bringing up the alliances for debate, and against having new elections in December. Why "supposedly"? Was the reporter not present? Did this in any way not signify a valid vote? What is it that she knows that we do not? The simple truth is: Those two votes were a test of strength between the andresmanuelistas and the social democrats, and the latter came up on top. Second, why does Muñoz write the council was adjourned "due to a lack of consensus"? The council was adjourned after the andresmanuelistas lost the vote, which they as always refuse to accept, and then proceeded to "take" the council tribune in retaliation. Why doesn't La Jornada report on this? The article itself brings in several quotations from opponents of Ortega, such as Dolores Padierna, yet none of his backers... indeed, another article by Víctor Ballinas in the same newspaper interviews three Senators from the PRD, all of whom strongly criticizes Ortega. Yet these people are a minority in the party - why not interview any of Ortega's many backers? Because it simply doesn't fit with the narrative, as John Stewart often mocks U.S. news organizations for? Functionally, La Jornada is unfortunately appearing a little too much like a Fox News of the left.

Rene Bejarano mobilizes movement supporters yet bides his time

René Bejarano is biding his time. This weekend, in a show of strenght, AMLO's one-time political operator filled a stadium of followers of his Movimiento Nacional por la Esperanza, or "National Movement of Hope," a relatively new movement-based outfit with which he is currently identitied.

Bejarano harangued against"petty" and  "arrogant" politicians, in a marked anti-party discourse so typical of the kind of "social movements" represented by Bejarano, even though the party current IDN, founded by Bejarano yet nominally led by his wife Dolores Padierna, remains one of the largest within the PRD. 

Within the PRD, the IDN, while appearing as one of the most "radical" of PRD's factions unequivocally loyal to AMLO, remains nonetheless and inherently opportunisit personal tool of Bejarano-Padiern  that might well switch to back AMLO's successor as Chief of Government of Mexico City, Marcelo Ebrard. 

Notably, Bejarano has been observed several times recently meeting with Ebrard, who is seeking the support of Bejarano's clientelist networks for his 2012 presidential candidacy. Whether Bejarano will go for AMLO or Ebrard will in the end be a question of who will be the highest bidder.

AMLO threatens to leave the PRD if PAN-PRD alliances continue

On tour in Chiapas to promote his book and, more importantly, his 2012 presidential candidacy, AMLO came out very hard  against the now-famous PAN-PRD state alliances, notably threatening to leave the party should the PAN-PRD alliances continue: 

"From now on I am warning you that we are going to draw a very clear line because it would be an act of treason. We have nothing to do with PAN, which stole the presidency of the republic form us in 2006...This alliance is wrong; I am against it. I don't accept that the PRD unites with the PAN; it is going to be a great betrayal if the PRD leaders want to unite with the panistas toward the 212 presidential elections."

The declarations, using his strongest language so far against the party of which he is still nominally a member, must be seen in context of this weekend's meeting of the PRD's national council (still ongoing). The council just voted 146-97 against the proposal of Dolores Padierna (IDN) to put the alliances on hold, a test of strength where the pro-alliance group of Jesús Ortega came up on top. The alliances will, as agreed earlier, be left to each individual state council - the highest PRD authority in each of Mexico's federal units - so that the local PRD branches will have the final decisions. 


Given this delegation of power to the state level, AMLO's words are on the surface peculiar, in the sense that if is not clear why possible future PRD decisions, decided upon centrally and to be affirmed on the state levels, to enter into more PAN alliances would constitute "treason." Indeed, if anyone has committed treason, party wise, it is AMLO, who notably ditched the PRD in the 2009 federal elections and asked his followers to not cast a vote for the PRD but instead PT and Convergencia, given hia failure to impose Alejandro Encinas as the PRD's national president in 2008. Yet in AMLO-speak, of course "treason" simply refers to the practice that the PRD is not anymore fully toeing the line and obeying the commands of its former presidential candidate.


In parallel, it is equally clear that the movement-party advocates within the PRD, will not obey to the majority - democratic - will; having lost an additional vote 142-93 to call for new internal PRD elections for party president in December, IDN and its allies simply resorted to their timeworn tactics of coercion, by "taking" the speakers podium, preventing any further discussions of the council. It is an embarrassing charade. 

AMLO will seek to retake control of the PRD this weekend

Despite having failed to have Alejandro Encinas elected as PRD president in 2008 - a cochinero that took 8 months to resolve, and nearly tore the PRD apart - AMLO is going again on the offensive to retake control of the PRD, through calling upon his followers, loyalists or opportunists alike, to kick out the national PRD leadership.

This weekend, the movement-advocates within the PRD - those who are often labeled as "radicals," yet who like AMLO are often socially conservative and want the PRD to remain intimately tied to AMLO - are launching a direct attack on the leadership of Jesús Ortega and his social democratic Nueva Izquierda faction, which currently controls the party. 


Eight corrientes have signed on to a declaration that calls for Ortega to step down in December 2010, but that also attacks the recent alliances with PAN. Judging by the statements of some, the goal is also to simply have Ortega ousted as leader this weekend.

Ortega, to recall, only started his 3-year presidency in December 2008 and his three-year term would then end in 2012. More important still, party disunity and yet another harrowing internal fight - the 2008 internal election took eighth months to resolve, and nearly destroyed the party - is simply the last thing the PRD needs. Especially given the hugely important elections in Guerrero and above all Mexico State next year, it seems hard to fathom that Ortega's opponents are going on the war path. Yet this infighting can only be understood from the logic of movement-advococates: While Ortega and Nueva Izquierda, along with his principal ally Alianza Democrática Nacional (ADN), seek to build an institutionalized organization autonomous of its old strongman, AMLO and the movement-advocates want the PRD to remain a loose movement-like party that is chiefly a tool at the disposal of a "cause," which, it is now clear, remains AMLO's presidential bid. Amazingly, AMLO and the movement-advocates are willing to risk yet another brutal internal party war by launching their nth attack on Ortega.

Yet while eight corrientes or internal party factions have signed on to the war document against its leadership, they do not appear to have the votes: Only IDN, led nominally by Dolores Padierna but de facto by her disgraced husband René Bejarano, has a significant number of councilors, but all the others, including Izquierda Social of Martí Batres, who holds the powerful portfolio of secretary of social development in Mexico City, and Red de Unidad Nacional de las Izquierdas (RUNI), which was recently launched by AMLO ultraloyalist Alejandro Encinas and also attracts some old cardenistas, have still very little presence on the PRD's National Council, and it seems doubtful they will get the 160 or so votes required to oust Ortega. 

Miguel Borbosa, who took over as national coordinator of Nueva Izquierda after Jesús Zambrano, in turn, accused some of the Ortega opponents within PRD to be tied to Enrique Peña Nieto. To be sure, should Ortega be ousted, the PAN-PRD alliance in Mexico State will tumble, and Peña Nieto is almost certain to have a priísta succeed him as governor of Mexico State. As such, Peña Nieto can only hope that Andrés Manuel López Obrador's attack on Ortega will be successful. Regardless, expect quite a ruckus this weekend.

Party leaders meet with president Calderón in "Security Dialogue"

The decision by Felipe Calderón to convoke a "Security Dialogue" with the leaders of Mexico's party  demonstrates at the very least a modicum of willingness to take their perspectives into account. All parties - PRI, PAN, Convergencia, PVEM, and PANAL - attended, with the exception of the ultra-pejista Partido del Trabajo, PT  - which also shows a certain level of maturity on their part. One cannot blame the president for refusing to listen and then reject an invitation to offer one's criticism in public. (That is, unless on is PT, which called for a national dialogue following the assassination of PRI's gubernatorial candidate in Taumalipas in June, yet now left the chair assigned to the party empty, recalling AMLO's empty chair in the first TV debate of 2006).

PRI and PRD were the most critical, and PRD offered harsh yet legitimate criticism of the government's handling of the "war on drugs." 


PRD party leader Ortega duly criticized the politicization of the Attorney General's office - that is, using its prosecuting power as a political instrument, and repeats its very reasonable demand that this institution, responsible for investigating and prosecuting federal crimes, should rather be autonomous. 


Ortega also gets the quote of the day:
"Eliot Ness didn't defeat the liquor mafias in the United States; the legalization of alcohol did."


The national PRD is also now on the record, to my knowledge for the first time, as supporting legalization of drugs. While many of its cadres have expressed this view, I can't recall having heard this expressed in the name of the PRD proper. 


Update: As was to be expected, Dolores Padierna again called for Ortega's resignation for the umpteenth time (I've completely lost track of the number), this time for meeting with Calderón. 
She represents the worst sectarian and stalinist elements of the PRD.

So much for internal pacts of piece: Padierna wants Ortega out.

Dolores Padierna, nominal head of the PRD corriente Izquierda Democrática Nacional, and wife of the disgraced money-stuffer René Bejarano, for the umpteenth time demands Ortega´s resignation, despite that the PRD, under his lead, has not only withstood excessive friendly fire from AMLO, who campaigned against the PRD in 2009 (preceded by months-long debacle where losing candidate Alejandro Encinas refused to accept Ortega's victory), but managed to do what appeared impossible, overthrowing the 8-decades old authoritarian state governments of Oaxaca, Puebla, and Sinaloa. 


But now that her corriente apparently won quite a few municipalities and local deputies, she now clamors again for Ortega's head, arguing that her faction is now the strongest within the PRD. 


Miguel Borbosa, national coordinator of Nueva Iqzuierda, responded in kind: If you don't shut up, we will use our 2/3 majority in the PRD national council to kick you off the PRD's National Political Commission (not to be confused with the national secretariat, formerly known as the CEN).


More from La Jornada here. 


To be continued...

Much ado about AMLO - and Ebrard

Not surprisingly, given AMLO's destape as presidential candidate this past Sunday, party colleagues, rivals etc  rush to offer their take on the situation. 
It's almost a year to the date since Ebrard admitted he was interested in the presidency.
Here's a run-down from El Universal on his strategy so far, in all essence one of "good governance" and highly publicized public works, as well as the expansion of social programs and creation of new ones.  


(His Prepa Si, for instance, appears an excellent initiative designed to help teenagers graduate with a bachillerato, or high school diploma.) 


As the article alludes to, being in power has both its advantages and disadvantages. Clearly Ebrard can use the programs to promote (in)directly his candidacy, but he cannot really promote, as does AMLO, a governmental project akin to AMLO's perennially vague "alternative project for the nation."


Ebrard's campaigning in favor of the July 4 alliances was also notable, especially when contrasted with AMLO's rejection of them. 


The honorable Senator Carlos Navarrete - one of the PRD's best assets - notes that AMLO is just"a pre candidate like the others," who will need to submit to the agreements negotiated with PRD/PT/Convergencia regarding who will be the left's candidate. I personally find it hard to believe that Navarrete truly thinks AMLO will respect any agreement whatsover. 


Alberto Anaya, PT leader, repeated obsequiously that he can have the PT party candidacy anytime (Read: "Please, please use us as we want to keep our party registry), claiming, in an exercise of utter sophistry, that this would still not breach AMLO's agreement. I mean, honestly, what is one to make of this sentence: "the PT already decided; nonetheless we will await the results of the poll"?


Luis Walton, leader of Convergencia - which competes with PT for the title of most-opportunist party in Mexico on the "left" - was a tad more cautious, noting that Ebrard was also in the running.  Dolores Padierna.... well, don't really care what she or IDN thinks. They will turn the cape to the wind no matter what - if Ebrard looks set to get the nomination, they will unceremoniously dump AMLO despite their prostrations of allegiance. 


Finally, as noted in an earlier post, AMLO's announcement would also likely lead to complains that he is breaching the new electoral rules on "pre-campaigning." Now, PAN has complained to the IFE about this issue. 

PRD corrientes

Speaking of PRD, Here's an excellent overview of the internal make-up

 of the PRD and its corrientes. While it is merely descriptive in the sense that it doesn't really analyze any differences between the corrientes, which I argue are real and substantial, it's very much updated. 

I find it odd that the article suggests that Bejarano will go for AMLO while Padierna will go for Ebrard- they are, after all, married, established the precursor to IDN together, and Padierna is as slavishly pro AMLO as they come - but that aside it looks very correct to me. 


(great graphic here, except from egregious error that Socorro Ceseñas is close to Jésus Ortega!)

AMLO 2012, again

AMLO's declaration of his candidacy for 2012, not unexpectedly, gets the full front-page treatment in La Jornada. 
(not so in Milenio or El Universal)


While I respect this immensely important newspaper for so many reasons, its hagiographic treatment of AMLO is more than embarrassing at times.
It did note, though, something that caught my attention as well: 

... a little bit before two in the afternoon, in the climax of his speech, López Obrador said, "Do you agree that we go as a movement for the 2012 elections? The crowd, exhausted after listening to more than 36 speakers, responded very softly, "yes"...

OK, don't want to exaggerate the point, as the crowd certainly surged to life when AMLO repeated the question a time or two, but the first response was a bit... anti climatic. Perhaps because the declaration was, in all essence, old news.  


Oddly enough, of the three newspapers cited above, only one commentary takes note of AMLO's broken promise to stick by the pact of the "best positioned" candidate.
(to compensate, it is a pretty funny commentary)


I stand a bit corrected regarding the PRD, which was indeed represented on stage - though not by anyone from Nueva Izquierda. Or Foro Nuevo Sol. Or from PRD-mexiquense.
I couldn't make out the faces, but apparently Alejandro Encinas was there, with his sidekick Ricardo Ruiz (former leader of PRD-DF), DF transportation minister  Armando Quintero (whose UNyR may at this point back either Ebrard or AMLO), Martí Batres (as always up for the highest bidder), Laura Velázquez (DF sec. of economic development), and of course Dolores Padierna of IDN, wife of the disgraced René Bejarano, whose IDN likes to portray itself as the most "radical" of AMLO's defenders but whose cadres have been involved in more corruption and other scandals than any corriente. 


Clara Brugada, delegation chief of Iztapalapa after the shameful Juanito incident was there, as well as a handful of pejista senators from the PRD and PT. When/if Ebrard gains traction, we'll see how many will bail ship. 


Finally, another question that pops into my mind: Will not this be a clear breach of the new electoral rules regarding "pre-campaigns," as determined by the 2007 Electoral Reform?

Who will lead the PRD after Ortega?

It seems like only months ago that Jesús Ortega was finally granted the party presidency of the PRD, after a ruling by TEPJF, the electoral tribunal. The party election was amazingly held by mass vote by the party base, even though every single election through this mechanism has led to a disaster, and particularly since the party by 2008 was more bitterly divided than at any point in history. My heart sinks just thinking the thought that the next election might in the end be held by this manner again.

It is my opinion that the PRD´s disastrous electoral result in 2009 was hardly the fault of Ortega, but rather of the refusal of his internal party opponents to accept his leadership and instead continue their "friendly" fire, and of AMLO´s decision to turn his back on his old party and campaign for the PT and Convergencia in that year's federal mid-term election.

This article in El Universal gives a decent run-down of some of the frontrunners, yet I digress strongly with its warning against trying out the proposed new method of electing party president, namely by a 60% supermajority in the PRD's national council. First, given the many cochineros of internal elections in the past, isn't it worth trying? How many times shall one keep doing the same thing and expect a different result? As for the internal division in the PRD I believe it remains as strong as ever, and now a new fault line as well is adding to the others, namely whether to push for AMLO in 2012 or not. And so what if this means the corrientes will need to pact a majority agreement? Isn´t that exactly the point? The andresmanuelistas has again and again showed they are terribly poor losers that generally tend to refuse to accept losses, particularly within PRD's own institution. This might serve to keep them on, rather than a zero-sum pro-AMLO or a pro-Nueva Izquierda president. Moreover, a supermajority requirement would be (somewhat) akin to a version of parliamentarism, which many in the PRD has long advocated.

The post also mentions Dolores Padierna as a possible candidate. It is my opionion that if Padierna, wife of the infamous René Bejarano, gets control of the PRD, the party is truly doomed. No one has done more to sow internal party division and create bad blood than the people of the corriente IDN, which, to recycle an overused saying,is hardly of the left but socially conservative and stalinist (I for izquierda), certainly not internally democratic but lead with an iron hand by Bejarano/Padierna (D for democrática), and hardly national (N for nacional), as its main strength lies with the clientelistic networks maintained by Bejarano in Mexico City. Only Nueva Izquierda, of Ortega et al, has proven capable, or rather, bothered to build a national organization. Padierna yet again recently called for Ortega to step down, demonstrating yet again IDN's failure to accept its loss. 

One candidate that is not mentioned is Michoacán Governor Leonel Godoy. Every single perredista in the upper echelons of the PRD that I´ve talked to have been full of praise for Godoy´s 2003-2005 interim presidency of the PRD following the utter disastrous presidency of Rosario Robles. The contrast to his successor Leonel Cota, who was regarded as completely subservient  to AMLO, was also remarkable.
He could again be somewhat of a, for lack of better word, "unity" candidate.
Yo voy con Godoy.