Morena will decide the 2024 presidential candidate through a population survey

Mario Delgado, president of Morena, during an official ceremony Mario Jasso / Cuartoscuro

In another gesture aimed at distancing himself from the codes and rites of traditional politics in Mexico, Morena has decided that his candidate for the next presidential elections will not be the result of the finger of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but will be chosen by means of a survey system among the population of the entire country. "The people of Mexico will be the one who elects the party's candidate in the 2024 electoral process through the poll method," party president Mario Delgado announced in a statement. The president has repeated on several occasions that the methods of the PRI, with the "cover" of the president, have already ended. While in the PAN governments some kind of consultation has already been tried to decide the successor of the president.The survey system has already been used by Morena and is surrounded by controversy due to its lack of transparency. The elections, according to this method, to elect their last president led to a war that had not yet closed and required the intervention of the courts.

More information

• A trail of tensions and confrontations guides the final stretch of the election to Morena's leader

• Marcelo Ebrard is uncovered for the race for the succession of López Obrador

The announcement comes after the official unveiling of the two candidates, for now, favorites in the dispute.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard publicly acknowledged, for the first time, his intention to participate in the fight during the morning conference on Tuesday after a meal with supporters in Toluca.

While the head of the capital's Government, Claudia Sheinbaum, without formally running, has multiplied the winks in the same direction.

Asked insistently in this regard, the mayor also referred this Tuesday to the election system established by the party: "Anyone has the right to participate in the polls, whether they are part of the federal government or not."

The closest antecedent is recent. The party's internal elections, which crowned Delgado as the new president in October last year, were also settled by the polling system. The process lasted for more than a year. The war unleashed between the different factions made it impossible to reach an agreement even on the format to elect their new leader and the election entered fully into the judicial field with the endless exchanges of complaints. Mexico is used to witnessing fierce internal disputes in parties, but the storm in Morena opened a wound that has not yet been closed, with Delgado's leadership questioned by an important part of the militancy.

In September 2019, during the preparatory assemblies for the primaries, there were fights, fists, chairs flying over the heads of the attendees in several States. In Jalisco there were even shots. The Electoral Court entered the scene for the first time in October, decreeing a postponement of the elections, considering Morena's electoral roll "unreliable". From there, the controversial system of election by means of polls that had already been used frequently in the PRD to select many of the party's cadres came into play. By court order, the National Electoral Institute (INE) monitored and supervised the process in which three private polling companies participated. On more than one occasion, the INE imposed a new survey, which had to be approved by the Electoral Tribunal.

The internal elections of Morena became a headache for the president practically from the start of said primary attempt. López Obrador tried to stay out of the chaos unleashed as a precautionary measure, while defending in any case the method of the polls as the answer to "carrying, buying votes and the lack of political responsibility of the leaders" .

López Obrador is also now showing a certain distance. He recently opened the range of possible candidates to succeed him with a new battery of names, many of them considered a smoke screen. The move has been interpreted as a cape to the favorites intended to cool down what seemed like a frustrated fledgling after the traumatic accident in Mexico City. The tragedy of Line 12 in which 26 people died at the beginning of May and dozens more were injured was a serious setback to the aspirations of both Ebrard, mayor of the city when the section was built, and Sheinbaum.

With the opposition disjointed, without a clear direction or no strong leadership for the time being, Morena's next candidate will start as the favorite.

According to a study by SIMO Consulting for EL PAÍS carried out before the intermediate elections, but just after the subway accident in the capital, the head of government of Mexico City surpassed the chancellor in voting intention, but they tied among Morena's supporters before a possible nomination to the presidential

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