MEXICO CITY: The defeated candidate in Mexico’s presidential election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has announced he is leaving his left-wing coalition to form a new political youth movement.
Speaking to tens of thousands of his supporters in Mexico City, Lopez Obrador said he would focus on changing Mexico through the new group, Morena.
He said he left on good terms, after losing two presidential elections. He refused to accept the results of July’s poll, saying it was fraudulent.
Analysts say his departure from the main coalition could weaken the left in Mexico.
“This isn’t a rupture,” Mr Lopez Obrador said at the rally in Zocalo Square.
“I have separated from the parties that form the Progressive Movement, but I must express my deep gratitude to all party leaders and supporters.”
Morena, also known as the National Regeneration Movement, has yet to be formally registered as a party.
“There is still no democracy in Mexico,” said the former Mexico City mayor. “I will not recognize Pena Nieto as the legitimate president of Mexico.”
Pena Nieto, whose Institutional Revolutionary Party ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century, won 38.2 percent of the vote compared to 31.6 percent for Lopez Obrador — a margin of three million votes.
Mexico’s Obrador eyes new movement
