Mexico: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador quits Democratic Revolution Party to start new movement

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is quitting Mexico’s main leftist party to start a new political movement.

Lopez Obrador, the runner-up in the 2012 and 2006 presidential elections, told thousands of supporters at a rally in Mexico City today that he was leaving the Democratic Revolution Party on good terms, the BBC reported.

"I have separated from the parties that form the Progressive Movement," Lopez Obrador said. "This isn't a rupture, I leave in the best of terms."

The silver-haired politician said he would continue his struggle to change Mexico with a new group called Morena that has yet to be legally incorporated as a party, Reuters reported.

The Associated Press said the decision could make it harder for the left to rally around a single candidate.

Lopez Obrador, who turns 59 in November, has refused to recognize the July 1 presidential election result, which showed Enrique Peña Nieto of the center-left Institutional Revolutionary Party won 38 percent of the vote against Lopez Obrador’s 31 percent. 

Lopez Obrador challenged the result, accusing Peña Nieto of using illicit money to buy five million votes and ply voters with supermarket gift cards, chickens and bags of cement to secure their support.

The country’s electoral court ruled last month that there was insufficient evidence to prove the allegations and confirmed Peña Nieto as the president-elect. He will take office in December.

More from GlobalPost: Coverage of Mexico's 2012 elections