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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Lopez Obrador Calls for Recount
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
| | Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the Democratic Revolution Party, (PRD), waves during a press conference in Mexico City, Mexico, Monday, July 3, 2006. Obrador said Monday he will use all legal means to challenge the apparent electoral victory of his conservative rival, Felipe Calderon. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo) |
Mexico faces weeks and possibly months of uncertainty after the leftist presidential candidate called for a recount of election results that showed him trailing his conservative rival by 1 percentage point.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador stopped short of calling Sunday's vote a fraud, nor did he call on his followers to take the streets. But he said there were many irregularities, including up 3 million missing votes — claims that could take months to clear up.
Electoral officials said a preliminary count gave Felipe Calderon an advantage of about 400,000 votes over Lopez Obrador, but they refused to declare a winner until an official count begins Wednesday. That process usually takes about a week, but it can be delayed by challenges. Even if a winner is declared, those results can be challenged in court.
Both candidates, however, immediately proclaimed victory.
"We have a commitment to the citizens to defend the will of millions of Mexicans," Lopez Obrador told supporters at his campaign headquarters. "We are going to employ whatever legal means."
The former Mexico City mayor said officials had estimated a voter turnout of at least 41 million, yet preliminary tallies by Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute only showed about 38 million ballots cast.
Jesus Ortega, Lopez Obrador's campaign manager said that "in some cases, we are going to demand the opening of ballot packages and vote-by-vote recounts."
Calderon, backed by President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, spoke like a president-elect, promising to build a conciliatory government.
"My intention is to talk with everyone," he said in a television interview Monday night. "Mexico needs everyone."
He praised Robert Madrazo, the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, for his "mature, responsible attitude" in conceding defeat Monday. Preliminary results showed Madrazo running a distant third in a blow to his party, which ruled Mexico for more than 70 years until Fox's 2000 election.
Members of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party said there were indications that the preliminary count may have been manipulated to favor Calderon's party. The Federal Electoral Institute did not respond to the allegation.
Lopez Obrador claimed various irregularities that included badly reported results and the double-counting of votes. He also asked how it was possible that his party won 155 of 300 electoral districts without winning the presidency.
Many had predicted violent street protests if the vote was too close to call, but that possibility appeared to diminish after Lopez Obrador did not call for demonstrations. Many of his supporters revere him with near-messianic devotion.
Financial markets rallied Monday on preliminary results that showed Calderon, a fiscally conservative former energy secretary, in the lead.
With 98 percent of polling stations reporting, Calderon of the National Action Party had 36.38 percent and Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party had 35.34 percent. Madrazo had about 21 percent, and minor candidates and write-ins took the rest.
Calderon brushed off comparisons to the electoral crisis that followed the U.S. 2000 election, in which George W. Bush narrowly defeated Al Gore. He joked the country's northern neighbor could learn from Mexico.
"We have such advanced institutions that we can do what the United States couldn't," he said.
George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary, said "the Mexican system is much more transparent" than the U.S. system.
Mexico has a single voter registry, a uniform photo identity card for voters and a national election law, he said, whereas "in the U.S., you have this crazy quilt of 50 state laws." Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute is also legally independent of the government, while in the U.S., partisan state officials tend to oversee the system, he said.
Even if the vote challenges are resolved, no party was close to obtaining a majority in congressional elections, meaning the next president will have to reach out to his rivals.
"This is basically a formula for gridlock," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, a Mexico expert with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
On the Net: Federal Electoral Institute: http://www.ife.org.mx (has English language site.)
Recount Demand Could Delay Mexico's Election Results by Months
Patrick Moser - AFP
Preliminary results for Mexico's presidential election give conservative Felipe Calderon a razor-thin victory but a demand for a recount has raised the specter of a lengthy legal battle reminiscent of the 2000 US election.
The results issued by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) on Monday gave Calderon 36.38 percent of the vote to 35.34 percent for leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who disputed the outcome, claimed irregularities and demanded a recount.
Electoral authorities stressed the results were not valid until the ballot count had been verified. IFE has until Sunday to complete the process, but the final outcome may not be known for months if the result is formally challenged.
The Federal Electoral Tribunal (Trife,) the final arbiter in electoral disputes, has until September 6 to give its final seal of approval.
Calderon, 43, of the ruling National Action Party (PAN) insisted there was no question he had an "irreversible" lead over Lopez Obrador.
Lopez Obrador, 52, who had initially also claimed victory after Sunday's election, called for a recount, "polling station by polling station."
"There are many inconsistencies," said Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor and the standard bearer of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD.)
He said he would use legal means to challenge the current count, while his party announced the formation of a special committee to defend his "triumph."
The statements raised fears of bitter and lengthy legal disputes reminiscent of the electoral debacle in Florida that delayed the outcome of the 2000 US presidential election by five weeks.
The political cliffhanger was being closely followed by Washington, which had hoped to see a reversal of the trend that brought several leftist leaders to power across Latin America in recent years.
But the US administration insisted on Monday it would work with whoever wins the election. Mexico "is an ally and neighbor, and obviously, we've got a great number of shared interests," said White House spokesman Tony Snow.
The Washington Post Tuesday urged both candidates to show restraint and accept the findings of the election institute. To Obrador, in particular, it implored that he "not seek to challenge the result through street demonstrations or other disruptions."
Authorities urged Mexicans to patiently await the official outcome, after both frontrunners claimed victory and thousands took to the streets in rival victory celebrations shortly after Sunday's vote.
Calderon called for an end to the bitter political rivalries that marked the electoral campaign. "Now is the time for conciliation," said Calderon, whose campaign had likened his rival to Venezuela's virulently anti-US leader Hugo Chavez, a comparison generally rejected by analysts.
A lifelong politician, Calderon has served as a lawmaker, PAN party president, and as energy minister in the cabinet of President Vicente Fox, whose 2000 victory ended 71 years of authoritarian rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI.)
Fox is constitutionally banned from seeking reelection.
Calderon says he wants to encourage foreign investment and slash corporate taxes in order to boost economic growth and create badly-needed jobs.
But his rival claims the wealth is not trickling down to the millions who live on less than two dollars a day and, in many cases, risk their lives by crossing the northern border illegally in search of the American dream.
Mexico's next president, who will take office on December 1, will face formidable challenges in trying to fulfill campaign pledges of battling poverty, corruption, common crime and drug-fueled violence.
He will also be hampered by the lack of congressional majority.
The ruling PAN won about 34 percent of the congressional mandates, the PRD 29 percent, and the PRI 27 percent.
PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo lagged far behind in the presidential election.
The PAN kept the three gubernatorial posts that were up for grabs. |
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