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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Lopez Obrador Widens Election Fraud Claims
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
| | A man walks past graffiti depicting presidential candidate Felipe Calderon from the National Action party (PAN) with the word 'Fraud', in reference to the general election's results, in Mexico City July 13, 2006. (Reuters/Jorge Silva) |
Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador widened his allegations Thursday that government and private groups conspired against him in an apparent losing bid for Mexico's presidency.
Other candidates and civic groups — some allied with the apparent winner, conservative ruling-party candidate Felipe Calderon — publicly urged Lopez Obrador to moderate his criticism for the good of the country.
The official tally showed Calderon winning the July 2 vote by fewer than 244,000 votes — a 0.6 percent margin.
Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who ran a campaign that promised to help the poor, claimed some commercial ad campaigns contained messages against him. He also said electoral officials were trying to fix vote counts, and even accused some of his own poll watchers of selling out.
Asked if it was sufficient to annul the elections, Lopez Obrador answered, "Clearly it is, but we don't want that. Clearly, there is more than enough evidence to indicate they violated constitutional principles."
Earlier Thursday, Calderon called on Mexicans to "reject violence," a reference to the radical and violent methods they say Lopez Obrador uses.
Calderon rejected Lopez Obrador's demand for a manual recount of all 41 million votes, but said "if the (electoral) tribunal should order a recount at some polling place, we would understand there was a legal basis for it."
While Lopez Obrador says the sole purpose of the 225 electoral challenges he has filed in court is to get a manual recount of votes, his staff acknowledges that judges could use his appeals to annul the elections. Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal, or TRIFE, has annulled two governors' races in the past, but never a presidential election. The court must review complaints filed by Lopez Obrador and all others by Aug. 31 and name a president-elect by Sept. 6.
As has been his daily habit of late, Lopez Obrador on Thursday showed reporters videotapes he claimed showed evidence of election irregularities, including ad campaigns that he said contained "subliminal propaganda" against him. The ads aired prior to the elections.
One ad by the juice company Jumex used a blue-screen background that Lopez Obrador said gave hidden support to Calderon, because blue is the party color of Calderon's National Action Party. Blue-screen backgrounds are frequently used in television ads, especially those that involve animation.
He also faulted a television ad by potato-chip make Sabritas, in which a man disguised as a bag of chips is depicted jokingly as a candidate, and people around him are shown talking about "clean hands" — a campaign slogan used by Calderon.
A narrator at the end of the ad says, "It is logical to wash your hands before eating Sabritas (chips)."
Officials at Sabritas corporate offices said Thursday that nobody was available to immediately comment on Lopez Obrador's declarations. A call to Jumex corporate offices was unanswered.
He also showed ads that were more clearly anti-Lopez Obrador. Some mentioned him by name, or his platform, and compared him to hated past presidents or to radical Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Electoral authorities ordered that the ads comparing Lopez Obrador to Chavez be pulled before the elections.
Lopez Obrador has called for protests across the country, under the slogan, "(Recount) Vote by Vote!"
Supporters began mobilizing Wednesday, and plan a massive march on Sunday in Mexico City's main plaza, as well as smaller gatherings in other cities around the country. |
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