Mexico President's Allies In Pre-election Marathon

Tapachula, Mexico, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Jul, 2023 ) :A former foreign minister and former Mexico City mayor who is seeking to be the country's first woman president are locked in a marathon contest for the ruling party nomination ahead of elections next year.

"I'm a woman of results," proclaimed Claudia Sheinbaum, a scientist by training who until recently was in charge of the Mexican capital.

"It's not a question of gender," said her main rival Marcelo Ebrard, who handled the country's foreign policy until stepping down in a bid to replace President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Both hopefuls are close allies of the president, a leftwing populist who enjoys an approval rating of more than 60 percent but is required by the constitution to leave office after a single six-year term.

Despite a limited budget, Sheinbaum, 61, and Ebrard, 63, have been crisscrossing a country plagued by drug violence and poverty since June to drum up support.

There are still 11 months to go before the elections, and almost two months before the ruling party announces its candidate from among six contenders.

Wearing sneakers, jeans and an embroidered blouse, Sheinbaum recently addressed around 1,500 people in a sweltering marquee usually used for cockfights in the southeastern city of Tapachula.

Microphone in hand, she began with a history lesson, in the manner of her mentor Lopez Obrador, who baptized his reform drive Mexico's "fourth transformation" since independence in 1821.

"What was the third transformation?" Sheinbaum asked in a style befitting the former science researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

"The revolution!" answered the crowd.

Sheinbaum, the granddaughter of Bulgarian and Lithuanian Jewish migrants, defended Lopez Obrador's record and avoided any criticism of her internal rivals.

"I don't like to speak ill of my colleagues," she told AFP when asked why she was a better choice than Ebrard.

Even so, she points out that she was "never a member of the PRI" -- the once-dominant party that governed the country for more than 70 years until 2000 -- unlike Ebrard.

- 'The best option' - Sheinbaum can count on the support of Claudia Martinez, who traveled by bus to see her from San Cristobal de las Casas, the fiefdom of the now-demobilized Zapatista guerrillas who rose up three decades ago.

"We need more women to represent us," Martinez said.

The battle with Sheinbaum is not about gender, but about "capacity and results," Ebrard insisted during campaigning just outside Mexico City.

The former foreign minister argues that he has his "own profile" and overcame adversity during a period of self-exile in France between 2015 and 2017 after corruption accusations that were dismissed by the judiciary.

"I'm the best option," he said, questioning the accuracy of opinion polls putting his rival in the lead.

Wearing a shirt and kitchen apron, Ebrard campaigned that day in a street of food stalls near Mexico City.

"I'm proud to have worked with the best president of Mexico in modern history," Ebrard said.

"Marcelo! Marcelo!" the crowd chanted in a show of support for the former top diplomat of French descent, who majored in international relations and then went on to study at France's Ecole Nationale d'Administration.