PRI assured frontrunner after candidate withdrawals

A prominent Mexican senator on Monday night withdrew his candidacy to seek the presidential nomination for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The surprise decision by Senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones paves the way for former Mexico state governor Enrique Peña Nieto to become the PRI candidate in next year's election.

The 44-year-old Peña Nieto currently leads in most polls as the strongest candidate among all the possible contenders, even though not all the parties have made their final selections. Last week, the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) picked Andrés López Obrador as its candidate following a survey of 6,000 supporters.

López Obrador, a firebrand former candidate, is trying to get across a more moderate message than the radical address he used during the 2006 race, in which he lost by less than one percentage point to Felipe Calderón of the National Action party (PAN).

Maintaining unity

Senator Beltrones said that he was withdrawing his intentions to run to "keep from splitting the party."

"This is one of those times in life and in politics in which one has to decide between trying to become an important figure or a useful man. [...] There will not be any split in the PRI; we cannot allow for any divisions. I know that I can continue my fight for reform from whatever political front," said Beltrones, in his statement.

For his part, Peña Nieto on his Twitter account lauded Beltrones' "political professionalism and contributions that benefit both PRI unity and its platform."

For her part, Josefina Vázquez Mota, one of three contenders for the PAN nomination, said in an EL PAÍS interview that she believed that voting for the PRI would constitute a return to the past.

"A lot of people remember what the PRI was, but there is an important sector of younger voters who never lived under its governments. We cannot pretend to build a future by returning to the past," she said. The PRI governed for 70 years in Mexico before the conservative PAN broke its franchise on power with the 2000 election of Vicente Fox.

The PAN will elect its candidate in February. Vázquez Mota leads the party's polls ahead of two other contenders: Santiago Creel, a former chief of staff, and Ernesto Cordero, a former Treasury secretary.