(Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s ruling party is suffering from a leadership crisis between its newly-chosen interim head and the previously-elected one who insists she’s still in charge, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refuses to get involved.
During a weekend congress, more than a thousand representatives of the party chose lawmaker Alfonso Ramirez Cuellar to lead it until he can arrange for new elections.
But other party leaders came out shortly to say the vote wasn’t legitimate. They want the party to remain under the leadership of Yeidckol Polevnsky, who said she might remain at her post for at least a year longer.
At stake is the ability of the party that holds majorities in both houses of congress to function at the most basic levels. Whomever ultimately remains in charge must also decide the future direction of the party: whether it should double down on the anti-establishment agitation that helped it ascend to power or become more like a traditional political group: formal, organized, hierarchical.
“This is not my responsibility,” Lopez Obrador said at his morning press conference about the leadership crisis. “They should resolve this democratically.”
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