Mexico opposition unites against PRI in Chiapas election

MEXICO CITY, July 24 (Reuters) -- Three weeks after the defeat of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in national elections, eight opposition parties joined forces on Monday against the PRI in the Chiapas governor's race.

Putting aside fierce divisions from the presidential campaigns, party leaders united behind independent Sen. Pablo Salazar, running against PRI Sen. Sami David, in a race seen as crucial to bringing peace to the troubled southern state where Zapatista rebels rose up in arms in 1994 over Indian rights.

Opposition leaders called the August 20 Chiapas vote key to democracy, saying the PRI was scrambling to retain power there by any means possible following the July 2 general election defeat that ended its 71-year grip on the presidency.

"PRI factions are concentrating on Chiapas in an effort to conserve their power and further their political interests," party leaders under the umbrella Alliance for Chiapas said in a joint statement.

The statement was read at a news conference by Manuel Camacho Solis, failed presidential candidate for the Party of the Democratic Center. "Peace in Chiapas does not matter to them, as it has not mattered during the past six years."

For the first time since Vicente Fox won the presidential race in a stunning upset, leaders of his National Action Party (PAN), met with their counterparts from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

The PRD standard bearer, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, came in third in the presidential race.

"We have converged for peace and democracy with the aim of consolidating democracy in the country through the Chiapas process," PAN President Felipe Bravo Mena told reporters. "If as a result of Chiapas we can solidify convergence and consensus on the national level, this is magnificent news."

They urged the state and national governments to guard against voter manipulation and fraud that has marred past elections in Mexico's poorest state, resulting in overwhelming PRI victories there.

Salazar, who was elected to the Senate on the PRI ticket but broke with the party last year, charged the incumbent state government with manipulating voters through rural aid and public works programmes, and with outright bribes during the July 2 campaign.

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