Defeated candidate looks to the future

Having failed in his bid for the Jalisco governorship, Citizens Movement candidate Enrique Alfaro now has his eye on the local elections in 2015.

“The political struggle to change the history of Jalisco begins today, in this public square,” he told supporters at Guadalajara’s Plaza Liberacion on Sunday. “In 2015 we are going to give the first demonstration of this movement’s renewed strength.”

Alfaro claimed the event drew 20,000 supporters, although local authorities said there were no more than 4,000 in attendance.

“Today we have three years to prepare for the next election,” Alfaro said, hinting that he will run for mayor of Guadalajara in 2015.

The former mayor of Tlajomulco, Alfaro lost the state election by Aristoteles Sandoval of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Athough he was badly beaten in rural areas of Jalisco, Alfaro won by a margin of over 55,000 votes in the municipality of Guadalajara, suggesting he already enjoys sufficient support to win a mayoral election.

Becoming mayor would be a major stepping stone toward winning the next state contest in 2018, as Jalisco’s last three governors all served as mayor of Guadalajara prior to becoming elected.