President’s party looks to end drawn-out leadership dispute

MEXICO CITY — The Morena party of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador finally chose a leader Friday after two failed, acrimonious attempts.

A poll of party members gave a comfortable margin of victory to congressional leader Mario Delgado, a centrist seen as more obedient to the president.

The results of an earlier poll that showed a tie had been hotly disputed by Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, an 87-year-old political warhorse who has been critical of López Obrador.

Later Friday, Muñoz Ledo said the polls, and previous ones, were “done illegally” but did not say whether he would accept the verdict.

The interparty dispute had been a thorn in the side of López Obrador, who needs to protect his party’s grip on congress in 2021 midterm elections.

López Obrador cobbled together the National Regeneration Movement — known to all in Mexico as Morena — from breakaway members from other parties in 2014. Its members include leftists and independents and centrists. The young party lacks formal organization in many of Mexico’s 32 states and holds only seven governorships.

Beyond that is the question of whether Morena, in its present form, will outlast the presidency of its creator, who is constitutionally barred from re-election.

The only good news for Morena is that the two main opposition parties — the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and the conservative National Action Party — are arguably in worse shape.

The PRI ruled Mexico uninterrupted from from 1929 to 2000 and still has the most governorships, 11. But its brief return to the presidency in 2012-2018 was so marked by corruption scandals that the PRI now seems cowed and rudderless.

National Action, a conservative party that offers the clearest alternative to López Obrador, is still distrusted by many because of two lackluster terms in the presidency from 2000 to 2012. Some party factions have been drawn into counterproductive demonstrations against the president.

Delgado, 58, is seen as a skilled behind-the-scenes political operator and ally of one of López Obrador’s potential successors, Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.