 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Obrador Threatens to Step Up Vote Protests
 Reuters
| | Mexico's top electoral judges must rule on Lopez Obrador's legal challenges by the end of August and declare a president-elect by September 6. |
Mexico City - A spokesman for the leftist candidate who barely lost Mexico's presidential election threatened on Saturday to step up civil resistance unless the conservative winner agrees to a complete recount.
Former Indian rights worker Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says the July 2 vote was rigged against him and has called for peaceful civil disobedience to pressure Mexico's top electoral court into ordering a vote-by-vote recount.
Felipe Calderon, the ruling National Action Party candidate who won by less than 1 percentage point, insists the law only allows for recounts at individual polling stations that show specific signs of irregularities.
"If the National Action Party continues to reject the opening of ballot boxes, serious decisions will have to be made about how to intensify the social protest," Gerardo Fernandez, a spokesman for Lopez Obrador, told reporters.
This week, Lopez Obrador refused to condemn an incident in which supporters hurled insults at Calderon and banged on his car in the first sign that protests could turn ugly.
Lopez Obrador already has held two large street rallies since the election, which European observers declared clean. He is planning another for July 30 in Mexico City.
Fernandez said Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution recently found inconsistencies at 22,000 additional polling stations, adding to 50,000 stations it had already identified to the electoral high court as suspicious.
Mexico's top electoral judges must rule on Lopez Obrador's legal challenges by the end of August and declare a president-elect by September 6. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us