(Bloomberg) -- Jorge Alvarez Maynez, who’s running a distant third place in voter opinion polls in the run-up to Mexico’s presidential election, is facing increasing calls to bow out and throw his support to the main opposition coalition contender, Xochitl Galvez.
Head of the PRI, Alejandro Moreno, one of the parties backing Galvez, said Tuesday he would step down from his role and from his candidacy to the senate if Maynez withdraws from the race in favor of Galvez before a presidential debate to be held May 19.
Maynez said Moreno’s proposal is as an act of desperation in the face of his rise in the polls.
“Resign because you have done a lot of damage to the country, resign from the PRI leadership,” he said in a video shared by his campaign team after Moreno’s proposal.
Moreno said that Maynez’s Movimiento Ciudadano doesn’t support Galvez because they seek to aid the ruling coalition.
“Maynez has no chance of winning the presidency,” Moreno said Tuesday in a meeting with reporters. “Only Xochitl can win the election.”
The previous day, Luis Donaldo Colosio, of the Movimiento Ciudadano party, said in a TV interview that he thought that the third-place candidate should consider stepping aside to give the opposition a real chance to defeat the party of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
The ruling party candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, is leading in the polls with 57% of voter intention, ahead of Galvez who has 30% of intention and Maynez with 13%.
Click here to follow the Bloomberg Poll Tracker for Mexico’s elections
Mexico will hold elections on June 2.
(Updates to add Maynez’s reaction in third, comments from Moreno in fifth paragraph.)
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