PAN victory to defuse tensions over cross-party accord
From Reuters
Mexico opposition leads in Baja California, boosting reform pact
By Dave Graham and Miguel Gutierre Mon Jul 8, 2013
* Conservatives still willing to push for reforms
* Pena Nieto seeks overhaul of Pemex, changes in tax system
MEXICO CITY, July 8 (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's economic agenda looked to be on surer footing after local elections on Sunday
yielded results that favor a cross-party pact he forged to push reforms through Congress.
The conservative National Action Party (PAN) won a tight race for governor in its stronghold of Baja California, according to preliminary results on
Monday.
The border state was the most closely watched contest as nearly half of Mexico's 31 states voted for a mix of local parliaments and mayors' offices.
The PAN had accused Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of trying to steal the election. So a PRI victory there could have
destabilized the "Pact for Mexico" that the president made with the opposition to help strengthen his hand in Congress, where he lacks a majority.
But an initial vote count for the only state governor's office up for grabs showed the PAN won the Baja California race, about 3 percentage points
ahead of the PRI.
By defusing tensions, the PAN's triumph is probably more useful to Pena Nieto than a win for his own party would have been, and helps foster consensus
on the key planks of his legislative program: opening up state oil monopoly Pemex to more private investment and a reform to bolster tax revenues.
The news pushed up the peso more than 1 percent against the dollar in early trading.
Elsewhere in Mexico, the PRI notched up some notable victories in mayoral elections, allowing both sides to claim success at the ballot box.
"The outcome allows both the PAN and the PRI to say they had good results," said Jorge Buendia, head of polling firm Buendia& Laredo.
By contrast, the main leftist group, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), had fared less well, he noted.
With 97 percent of the polling booths reporting in Baja California, the PAN gubernatorial ticket had won 47.2 percent of the vote against 44.2 percent
for the PRI candidate, initial results from the local electoral authority showed.
PAN BLUES
Since it lost the Mexican presidency last year, the PAN has been bogged down in infighting that has rattled the stability of the pact Pena Nieto
struck in December.
PAN chairman Gustavo Madero, whose leadership has been under attack, said the party would still have to evaluate its commitment to the pact after an
election campaign he said was marred by attempts by the PRI to steal and buy votes.
But he said the results had vindicated the PAN.
"We are still convinced that Mexico needs reforms," Madero told Mexican radio, referring to the energy and tax plans.
Those ambitious reforms are due to be presented to Congress by early September. Pena Nieto is likely to face strong opposition from the left,
especially to the Pemex shake-up.
Buendia said setbacks for the left in some regional battles on Sunday were likely to push the PRI closer to the PAN's position on how to approach
Pemex reform, implying a stronger push to open up the state oil giant to foreign capital.
The PRD, which also signed up to Pena Nieto's pact, lost control of the local government in the tourist resort of Cancun, where the PRI's candidate
won by a clear margin.
Tax reform and the Pemex overhaul are vital to Pena Nieto's hopes to raise economic growth to 6 percent a year from an average of barely 2 percent
since the millennium began.
Those measures may be in doubt if the pact falls apart"
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
