New Nod to Mexican Democracy

For 70 years, every Mexican president has personally chosen the next presidential candidate of the ruling Party of the Institutionalized Revolution. And every time, the PRI candidate has become president.

But political times have changed with the rise of parties on the left and the right, and the PRI’s old presidential candidate selection process hardly fits this democratic rough-and-tumble. This week, the PRI announced it will hold an open primary vote in November to choose its candidate for the 2000 presidential elections.

If the voting process turns out to be transparent and fair, Ernesto Zedillo will be remembered as the president who democratized a political system that was born profoundly anti-democratic. If it fails, Mexico will fall one more notch into political chaos.

The PRI candidate is to be chosen in a national primary election set for Nov. 7 and open to all registered voters, regardless of their political affiliation. The 300 federal electoral districts will be winner-take-all, and the candidate who wins the most districts will be the nominee.

All candidates must declare their intention to run by July 15. Campaign spending limits have been set, and a debate among the candidates will be required.

This historic development has generated a curiously ambivalent reaction. Some political observers believe that the new system will mean little in that it still will pave the way for Zedillo’s favored candidate, Francisco Labastida, who resigned Tuesday as interior secretary and announced his intention to run.

For average Mexican citizens, the new rules are either proof that Mexico’s democratization is irreversible or a sign that a totally new trick has been brewed in the basement of the PRI building. What breeds the skepticism is that so many of the PRI’s veteran apparatchiks were named to supervise the process.

For now, Zedillo deserves the benefit of the doubt. If he succeeds in mounting a primary widely seen as fair, he should get credit for making Mexico a more democratic country.