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 Editorials | At Issue | July 2006 
Disputed Election Leaves Mexico Adrift
 Traci Carl - Associated Press
| | People protest outside of the offices of the Federal Electoral Tribunal in Mexico City, Mexico on Friday July 14, 2006. The country's electoral tribunal began weighing hundreds of appeals regarding alleged vote fraud in last July 2 presidential elections and leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on supporters to set up protest camps outside the nation's 300 electoral offices to prevent alleged tampering of ballots in the past elections. Signs say: 'Ugalde (federal electoral institute presidente and (President) Fox are a danger to the Nation' and 'NO to the nasty fraud'. (AP/Marco Ugarte) |
The stock market is dropping. Protesters are marching on the capital. Citizens are lighting candles in hopes of divine intervention.
Two weeks after a still-undecided presidential election, the suspense is testing Mexico's young democracy. The highly respected Federal Electoral Institute is charged with making sure that the tug of war doesn't reverse democratic gains made since President Vicente Fox's stunning victory six years ago ended 71 years of one-party rule.
Mexican stocks have given up nearly all of the huge gains made after the July 2 vote, and the peso, which initially rallied on news of conservative Felipe Calderon's apparent victory, has stalled amid confusion over who won.
Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who refuses to concede, has given Mexico's electoral court what he says is evidence of fraud. He calls Calderon a fascist, and is demanding a nationwide, vote-by-vote recount.
Lopez Obrador will lead hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — in a Mexico City march to demand that electoral officials review all 42 million ballots cast, something those officials say they can't do. Thousands of his supporters have converged on Mexico City in caravans after scattered nationwide protests.
Some of his supporters have been adorning their windowsills with votive candles normally reserved for saints, praying that the former Mexico City mayor will reach the presidency.
Calderon is building a transition team and planning a victory tour, even though his 244,000-vote advantage — just under 0.6 percent of the vote — isn't official until the elections court weighs all appeals and issues a final decree.
This week, the electoral court will hold public sessions to sift through claims by both sides of irregularities — including a television juice advertisement whose blue background matching the ruling party's color allegedly sent subliminal messages in support of Calderon. On Friday, electoral officials from around the county were turning over to the court electoral materials.
Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party has handed over a nearly 900-page legal challenge claiming the election was tainted by fraud and that his rival's attack ads — including spots that were eventually banned for comparing Lopez Obrador to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — were illegal. |
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