50 civic organizations register to be national political parties in Mexico

Many parties, but how much choice?

Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) has received 50 applications from civic organizations that are interested in becoming national political parties.

Legal proceedings are now in play to see which ones can be registered. Those that do meet the requirements will become parties effective August 1, 2014.

IFE announced on Thursday night that the official inscription period, as specified in Article 28 of the Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures (known as “Cofipe”), had ended.

The election law stipulates that a prospective political party must notify IFE by the January after a presidential election, which is held every six years on July 1.

One of the requirements to qualify as a national party is to have a presence in 20 states and at least 200 districts, as well as a national constituent assembly.  All of this must be proven to an official at IFE.

During the 20th century, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or PRI) ruled Mexico for 71-years. At that time, the PRI had numerous client parties that claimed to represent specific interests, particularly from a workers’ and, to a lesser extent, regional populations.

The PRI are back in power, and almost certainly this is happening again, though the process is more overt – we can expect some of these parties to officially line up with larger political forces, including rival parties, come election time. It is also likely that only a fraction of the 50 will receive approval.

(TE Wilson is the author of Mezcalero, a Detective Sánchez novel.)

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

Email: lapoliticaeslapolitica [at] gmail [dot] com

N.B.: If you are having difficulty submitting to the e-mail feed at the top of this page, press "enter" on your keyboard instead of the "submit" button.