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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Calderon Calls for Calm Ahead of Protests
 Reuters
| | Felipe Calderon, of the National Action Party, PAN, and possible winner of last July 2 presidential elections speaks during a conference in Mexico City, Mexico on Tuesday July 11, 2006. (AP/Dario Lopez-Mills) |
The winner of Mexico's contested presidential election, conservative Felipe Calderon, urged calm on Tuesday ahead of street protests led by his leftist rival, who has cried fraud.
Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has called his supporters from around the country to congregate in the capital later this week to back his claim that the vote count was manipulated in favor of ruling party candidate Calderon.
A huge protest march is set for Sunday in Mexico City.
"I call on all the political players to behave with strict adherence to our laws and institutions and on the people to avoid any kind of provocation," Calderon told journalists.
Lopez Obrador, a former Indian welfare officer, rallied more than 100,000 people in the capital's Zocalo square last weekend to protest what he said was fraud in the election, which Calderon won by less than a percentage point.
That rally passed peacefully and the leftist has persistently said his protests will not be violent. He has asked a special electoral court to change the election result.
A Lopez Obrador aide warned on Tuesday of a serious crisis if the electoral court does not pay heed to his challenges.
"We are faced with the most serious political problem the country has had in recent years and if it is not resolved properly, it is going to create a crisis of grave proportions," advisor Manuel Camacho Solis said.
The electoral court must rule on Lopez Obrador's objections to the election result by August 31 and declare a president-elect by September 6. |
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