Posted on 02/10/2004 4:43:21 PM PST by Int
| Mexico's first lady says she will seek presidency |
| Mexico City, Feb 10 (EFE).- First Lady Marta Sahagun's confirmation that she will seek the nation's presidency in 2006 has roiled the waters of Mexican politics and prompted a top jurist to say that if she does indeed become a candidate, her husband, incumbent Vicente Fox, should resign before the end of his term. |
|
Asked in a television interview Monday night if she would run - a possibility much debated in the media and on the streets in recent weeks - Sahagun replied: "Speaking truthfully, as we say we should, the answer is, 'Yes, yes.'" The head of the University of Mexico's Legal Research Institute, Diego Valades, said Tuesday that if Sahagun plans to run for office, President Fox should step down six months before the elections, which are set for July 2006. Noting that the fundamental law of the land is based on valid reasoning, the jurist noted that "there is both letter and logic in the Constitution. The logic is that situations of power should not be used to remain in power." Mexico's Constitution, which bans re-election, requires that senior-level officials who run for another office resign six months before the election, although it does not indicate what should be done when it is an incumbent's wife who wishes to seek public office. Jurist Ignacio Burgoa weighed in, saying that although Valades might be right about the "spirit" of the Constitution, the basic law of the land does not prevent the first lady from running for president. "The Constitution says nothing about it. It does not say anything about stepping down because relatives are running for office," he said. The case is unprecedented in Mexico. No wife of a president, or a state governor for that matter, has ever tried to succeed him in office. During the interview, Sahagun openly acknowledged that she intends to seek the governing National Action Party's (PAN) presidential nomination. The conservative PAN's secretary-general, Manuel Espino, however, has expressed the opinion that it would not be "ethical" for Fox's wife to run for president. Sahagun, who heads Vamos Mexico (Let's Go, Mexico), a charitable foundation, is thought to be the country's second most popular figure, right after Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the most leftist of the three major parties. Meanwhile, Roberto Madrazo, president of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which lost the presidency to Fox after more than 70 years in power, predicts that the ones to beat in the 2006 presidential election will be Sahagun and Lopez Obrador. EFE lg/nj/mp |
As for Senora Fox, she will be defeated by the PRI commandos. And Her Heinous Evita Clinton, if she runs in NY or for the US presidency, she will lose. I'm good at predictions, with a 95.7% win record.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.