The center-right PAN – Partido Acción Nacional – is Mexico’s biggest opposition party and recently elected a new leader, Jorge Romero.
However, as recently reported in Excelsior, the PAN has a big problem – not enough members.
In Mexico, a voter does not register as a member of a political party to obtain the government voter registration card.
If a voter wants to, he or she can become a member of a political party, according to the rules of that party.
The PAN’s problem is that it has so few members that it’s in danger of losing its national party registration.
According the Ley General de Partidos (General Law of Parties), a political party must have 0.26% of the national registration, which would currently be 261,580 members, in order to be registered at the national level.
So how many members does the PAN have? According to its internal party list as of August, it has 302,982 members.
But what counts is the official list of the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE). The INE list has the PAN at 277,665 members. According to that, the party has just 0.27% of the national registration. If it drops below 0.26% the party loses its national registration.
Is it just a question of updating the INE lists? But that’s only done every 3 years.
And compare the PAN’s figures to the other political parties:
1. MORENA – 2,322,136 members
2. PRI – 1,411,889 members
3. Green Party – 592,417 members
4. PT (Labor Party) – 457,624 members
5. Movimiento Ciudadano – 384,005 members
6. PAN – 277,665 members
The PRD no longer has national registration, which means the PAN has fewer members than any other nationally-registered party.
Even if the higher figure on the PAN party list were official, the party would still be the one with fewest members.
Note too that parties #1, #3 and #4 are currently coalition allies.
And due to its low membership, the PAN is in danger of losing its national registration.
Why does the PAN have so few members?
In a word, it’s more selective. In order to be a member, you have to take classes on party doctrine and pass exams.
Kenia Lopez Rabadan, a PAN congresswoman, says they plan to recruit more members and they need to change some party rules .
She told Excelsior that “To say what we are, what we represent, I am absolutely clear that we need to be a center-right party. To play at being leftist, there are many parties that want to do that and we have to represent the family. We have to represent human rights. We have to represent this vision of Mexicans who want prosperity and security and health.”
The Excelsior article reports that “With the desire of having more members, since 2022 the PAN has worked on incorporating minorities who do not historically identify with the party, such as members of the Lesbian-Gay community and the distinct indigenous groups. Therefore, the central committee of the PAN decided to create the Secretariat of Equality and Human Development in which belong the LGBTIQ+ groups and the Secretariat of Indigenous and Afromexican Affairs.”
How about Mexico’s security situation? Would campaigning to reduce crime be a winning platform? It might be worth a try.
I’ve paid attention for over 50 years and yet don’t have a clue about Mexican politics and political parties– in fact I never saw much difference when I new party came to power. Only in recent years have i grasped how good/great the police force at the top of Mexican legal pyramid is– they are little known and far superior to what most Mexican policing is, so the top politicians I believe are well guarded.