By Alex Vasquez | Bloomberg News | AUG. 28, 2023 | Photo by Henry Romero
Mexico’s ruling party Morena revealed additional details of the secretive process by which it will select its nominee for 2024 presidential elections.
The party will survey 12,500 people as it seeks to choose a “national coordinator” for the campaign, who is widely expected to be the candidate, Morena’s national head Mario Delgado shared in a statement via text message. Four external polling firms will each conduct 2,500 surveys, while the party’s electoral committee will carry out 2,500.
The details come as Morena enters the final week of its party primary process, conducted primarily through a survey process that has faced criticism over its opacity. The name of the nominee that will seek to succeed President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will be released Sept. 6.
Though Lopez Obrador has vowed not to interfere in the candidate’s selection, tensions have been on the rise after one of the top contenders, former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, said the party leadership was favoring former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.
Additional details from the process:
—The survey will be held from Monday to Sept. 3.
—The ballot will have a circular shape.
—The question on who the preferred national coordinator is will hold 75% of the weight in the survey. The question’s wording is still to be determined by the party’s election committee.
—Surveys will be carried out in homes.
—Surveying teams include the pollsters, representatives from each of the six candidates, and a coordinator selected by the party commission.
—Morena will use tablets to carry out the polls and record the exact time and place where they were executed.
—The ballot boxes where the questionnaires will be kept will be transparent for security purposes.
—External polling firms have signed a confidentiality document and their names will not be released until Sept. 6.
—The candidates will know the route of each ballot box into Mexico City, where the final count will happen, as some expressed the wish to track each box.
—Delgado declined to say how much the polling process will cost.
