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 Editorials | At Issue | July 2006 
PRD Lays Out Resistance Strategies
 Kelly Arthur Garrett - El Universal
| | A supporter of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, presidential candidate for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), waves a Mexican flag during a march to protest against the result of the July 2 elections along Mexico City's Reforma avenue July 16, 2006. (Reuters/Tomas Bravo) |
The million-plus Mexicans who gathered peacefully in Mexico City´s Zócalo Sunday may have participated in history, not just for their record-setting numbers but as mass inaugurators of what´s being billed as a new and permanent pro-democracy movement.
But opponents of Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who led the march and rally, moved quickly Monday to accuse the PRD candidate of organizing the massive mobilization as an "incendiary" tactic designed to influence the contested election´s outcome.
Prominent PRD leaders, including national party leader Leonel Cota and López Obrador´s campaign coordinator Jesús Ortega, met with the candidate Monday to map out strategies for a campaign of "peaceful civil resistance" aimed at halting the "democratic backsliding" of the July 2 vote.
López Obrador has asked the nation´s top electoral court to investigate suspected widespread vote-count tampering and polling station irregularities before certifying the current tally, which has conservative National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderón leading the center-left López Obrador by just 0.58 percent of more than 41 million ballots cast.
The strategy session began less than 24 hours after the former Mexico City mayor told supporters assembled from across the country that a full vote-by-vote nationwide recount, the central demand of the López Obrador campaign, is not the end of the story.
"We´re fighting not just for the recognition of our legitimate victory in the presidential election," he said. "but for the greater cause of making democracy count in our country."
´OLD-STYLE´ FRAUD
López Obrador has insisted since shortly after the July 2 vote that fraud perpetrated by the ruling PAN and facilitated by high officials in the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) tipped the balance in favor of Calderón. On Monday, he characterized the fraud as "old style" - such as ballot box stuffing and tally-tampering - rather than "cybernetic."
The PRD candidate said that a certification of a Calderón victory by the Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) - which he said he would accept "under protest" - would only underscore the need for an ongoing, mass democracy movement.
"It´s unacceptable that a privileged group can use money and dirty tricks to illegally impose an illegitimate president," he said Sunday. "That´s why the general objective of this movement is the defense of democracy."
In the ongoing battle of images accompanying the electoral showdown, the Calderón camp has tried to characterize public displays of support for López Obrador as proof that he is a manipulator stirring up popular discontent, rather than a defender of democracy.
"Andrés Manuel López Obrador wants to turn this into a contest to see who can bring the most people into the Zócalo," said PAN deputy Jorge Triana Tena.
The outgoing legislator also echoed another PAN theme in the image war, that López Obrador is seeking to gain the presidency by extra-legal means. "The first responsibility (of the TEPJF) is to make its decision based on the law ... and not on photographs of the filled-up Zócalo and not on the transcript of (López Obrador´s) latest incendiary speech."
Though the Electoral Tribunal alone will name the winner sometime before September 6, both Calderón and López Obrador have sought to sway public opinion to their cause. The public relations battle began shortly after the last vote was cast on July 2, when each ignored pleas from IFE president Luis Carlos Ugalde not to declare victory.
Since then, Calderón has assumed the role of president-elect, while López Obrador has insisted on a full recount "for the political, economic and financial stability of the nation." |
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