| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2009 
PRD Reshapes Its Constitution
 The News
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July 27, 2009
| | Martha Dalia Gastélum (Cuartoscuro/Isaac Esquivel) | |
In what is being labeled as "the second founding" of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), officials are reshaping its constitution to transform ideological currents into opinion trends, former interim president Martha Dalia Gastélum, now a member of the National Political Commission, said Sunday.
The project is currently under debate with proposals being made by over 500 participants who are eyeing how to move from a presidential to a parliamentary system, which would eliminate open elections.
The PRD recently went through an internal crisis as two candidates battled for the presidency, bringing the party almost to destruction.
Mrs. Gastélum said that under a new system to go into operation on January 15, 2010, recognition would be given to the different shades of ideological currents but also to the differences. Also, a new affiliation campaign is to be initiated.
"All this is so we won't always be walking in a muddy swamp of give and take," she explained, "but to have a system in which two opinions can coexist and not be the motive for fights or conflicts, and allow the recognition of similarities."
Hence the left wing ideological currents are to be turned into opinion trends, setting aside group factionalism, which has harmed the party in the recent past and is now blamed for hurting it in the July 5 midterm elections.
"The different forms of thought, be they center-left or social democratic, would be grouped into two or three opinion trends and we would do away with a bunch of small and big trends."
A first experiment with a revamped democratic system was held Sunday in the city of Cárdenas, Tabasco, where party members openly voted for their candidate to run for mayor and two state deputy seats. In most of the votes ballots were cast openly, not secretly. This is one municipality out of 15 where other methods will be used, including by polling party members and by caucus.
The decision to begin a massive affiliation campaign was made a week ago in a leaders meeting in Cuernavaca. Currently there are also meetings being held in the state of Michoacán.
According to the PRD's Affiliation Commission, members who want to be part of the party must register as militants as a prerequisite to qualify and run for office.
The remaking of the PRD is being carried out in the midst of a financial crisis. Prior to the midterm elections the party was already 713 million pesos in the hole, and due to the election results, the Federal Electoral Institute slashed its share of election funds by 30 percent.
Also, PRD members who ran for other parties in the midterm elections, more than 500 according to current party president, Jesús Ortega, will have to subscribe again to the party for a fresh start.
According to the last count, there are more than 7 million PRD members. |
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