Official Quits to Enter PRI Primary
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MEXICO CITY — Mexican Interior Minister Francisco Labastida said Tuesday he will resign his post in order to seek the presidential nomination for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
“I have made the most important decision of my life. I have decided to present my candidacy,” Labastida told a news conference. “I will present my resignation [as interior minister] to President Ernesto Zedillo when he returns [from a trip to California].”
The PRI, which has governed Mexico for 70 years, on Monday set historic new rules for choosing its presidential candidate. The party scrapped a system in which the Mexican president handpicked his party’s candidate to be his successor in favor of a primary election to be held Nov. 7 in which any registered Mexican voter can cast a ballot.
The PRI also required any public official to resign before June 15 in order to seek the presidential nomination. Labastida became the first candidate to step down.
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