Mexico’s opposition annuls leadership vote

MEXICO CITY —  The country’s main leftist party on Monday faced the possibility of months more disarray after it threw out a disputed leadership vote held four months ago.

The move leaves the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, beset by internal division at a key moment. The party plans to lead the fight against President Felipe Calderon’s proposed overhaul of the state-run oil industry and must also gear up for congressional elections next year.

Over the weekend, a PRD committee annulled the March 16 vote for party president after months of bickering between the two main contenders over who won. The panel concluded that the balloting was riddled with irregularities.

Initial vote counts favored Alejandro Encinas, a close ally of the party’s most visible figure, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Lopez Obrador narrowly lost the 2006 presidential election to Calderon, and the PRD vote was widely seen as a test of his hold on the party.

But subsequent tallying appeared to swing the vote to Jesus Ortega, a former federal senator. Each side accused the other of vote rigging.

The decision to hold a new vote did nothing to ease those hard feelings. Ortega said he would appeal the decision to Mexico’s elections tribunal. Encinas vowed to run anew.

The party has 30 days to schedule a new election. Legal appeals or a new campaign could heighten tensions as the party battles against Calderon’s proposal to broaden private investment in the state-owned oil monopoly, Pemex.

A two-month discussion on the proposal ends today in the Mexican Congress. PRD leaders say they will introduce a rival measure after holding nonbinding public votes around the country, starting Sunday.

Calderon says Pemex needs outside help to boost sagging oil production, but the PRD charges he wants to privatize the oil giant, long treated as a kind of national treasure.

Further infighting could hurt the PRD in 2009 elections, which will determine the next Congress and set the course for the 2012 presidential vote.

The PRD has the second-highest number of seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies. In some polls, though, it has fallen to third place, behind Calderon’s National Action Party and the once-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Despite a long history of internal strife, the PRD remains a potent political force, in part because Lopez Obrador is its strategic leader, said Daniel Lund, a Mexico City pollster and political consultant.

“The party has been dysfunctional, but the leadership is intact,” Lund said.

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