Leaders from Mexico's National Action Party (PAN) and the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) recently announced their intention to run on a joint ticket in the 2011 race for the governorship of the state of Guerrero, and have begun talks to collaborate in an additional four state races.
The announcement follows July's defeat of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) at the hands of the PAN-PRD alliance in gubernatorial races held in three PRI strongholds -- Oaxaca, Puebla and Sinaloa -- and signals the increasing collaboration between Mexico's main center-right (PAN) and center-left (PRD) parties as the 2012 presidential contest nears.
The PAN and PRD's decision to work together in select state elections represents part of a joint strategy to weaken the PRI's growing national standing ahead of the 2012 presidential elections, in which all major parties are expected to run independently. But the PAN and PRD's current alliance has the PRI leadership worried and has increased speculation that the PAN-PRD partnership could extend to the next presidential elections.