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By RICARDO CASTILLO

On Monday, Oct. 11, we will find out who the new president of Mexico’s National Regeneration Movement (Morena) political party will be.  

Elections through polls organized by the National Electoral Institute (INE) are currently underway through Saturday, Oct. 8.

The results will be made public by the INE, as stated, on Monday.

Getting to this point was no easy process.

On Tuesday, Oct. 6, the Federal Judicial Power Electoral Tribunal’s (TEPJF) recently elected president, Felipe Fuentes Barrera, wanted to cancel the results of the INE polls and postpone Morena’s internal elections until after the June 2021 midterm election.

Then, Fuentes Barrera made a sudden turn around move and opted for admitting the INE’s polls.

This move pacified anxiety within Morena, especially in the candidate with the alleged highest support in the polls, Deputy Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, who went so far as to accuse the TEPJF officials of “taking bribes,” apparently from opposing candidate and Morena whip at the Chamber of Deputies, Mario Delgado, also vying for the party’s presidency.

Muñoz Ledo, 87, wields the greatest experience in leading political parties since in the past he’s been president of the once-almighty Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and later, after splintering from the PRI establishment, he went on to preside over the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).

Many at Morena believe he’d be the one leader who would even the playing field for fair play, mainly in the upcoming selection of candidates for 15 state governorships, 500 federal deputy seats and over a couple of thousand for municipal mayor candidacies.

Morena, pollsters claim, is way ahead of the other parties In the race to keep control of the Chamber of Deputies and to win the majority of governor seats at stake in the midterm election.

Infighting within Morena has been fierce over the past two weeks, with Muñoz Ledo directly attacking Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard for being the visible head of the political faction led by Mario Delgado.

However, that is not the end of the conflict.

Also running for Morena president are three female candidates spearheaded by former Secretary General Yeidckol Polevsnky, along with Adriana Menéndez and Hilda Mirna Díaz.

There are also 12 more candidates running for the secretary general post.

In the first poll, which ended a week ago, Muñoz Ledo and Delgado led the pack for president.

Last week, Morena founder and now-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) intervened for the first time in his nearly two years in office in the internal affairs of Morena.

AMLO scolded all the participants in the fray for stretching an internal democracy problem for over a year, which, he said, has not hurt Morena “because in the polls it is at the top” since people believe in the party, but not so much in Morena’s hopefuls.

“There are a lot of candidates for such little leadership,” he said.

AMLO called on the candidates to put their special interests aside to devote their attention of the Mexican people’s needs.

Pro-tempore Morena President Alfonso Ramírez Cuellar had by law to step down on Oct. 6, but apparently, he will stay in the post for a few more days and make a ceremonial transition Of power to the winner next week.

Until then, it’s only natural that anxiety will continue to rule among the candidates for president and secretary general.

Then, the president’s party is bound to set on a new course of action … without inner bickering.

…Oct.7, 2020