Mexico’s left, right ready to form party alliances for 2018

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s conservative National Action Party voted Monday to register with the national elections body as part of a political front with the leftist Democratic Revolution Party and Citizen Movement.

On Sunday, the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which was once Mexico’s largest opposition party, approved a policy of running in alliances ahead of next year’s presidential election.

The PRD has lost support to the upstart Morena party led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a two-time presidential candidate who has broken with the PRD and claims to be the only real leftist option.

Such an alliance would be called the Broad Democratic Front. But it could further erode the ideological underpinnings of the PRD, which has moved to the centre.

National Action said in a statement late Monday that it was not a traditional party alliance, but rather an umbrella with room for all who want a better Mexico and would allow the creation of a coalition government with a stable majority.

It remained to be seen whether the move would result in further splintering of those parties. Some members of both expressed disagreement with the decisions.