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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Mexico Leftist Rallies Crowds to Reverse Vote Loss
 Alistair Bell - Reuters
| | Presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, center, of the Revolutionary Democratic Party, gestures during a news conference in Mexico City on Thursday, July 6, 2006. (AP/Marco Ugarte) |
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist who came second in Mexico's contested presidential election, plays his trump card on Saturday when he appeals to the masses to help him overturn his narrow defeat.
Lopez Obrador, who says the election of conservative Felipe Calderon last Sunday was plagued by irregularities, will put his case to a large crowd in the capital's Zocalo square.
Popular in Mexico City where he was once mayor, the leftist can expect at least 100,000 people at a rally he has called for 5 p.m. (2200 GMT).
He has asked a court to rule against Calderon, who is already looking presidential after a recount gave him victory on Thursday by less than 1 percentage point.
President Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a fellow leftist, dealt fresh blows to Lopez Obrador when they called his rival on Friday to congratulate him on the election win.
Lopez Obrador has yet to produce much evidence of large-scale fraud and a team of European Union observers said there was no massive vote-rigging or irregularity.
Lopez Obrador, who has stayed mostly out of public view since Thursday morning, has discouraged violence among leftists, many of whom remember a 1988 presidential election widely believed to have been stolen from them by the government then controlled by the once long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
"We are going down the legal and peaceful path," said Gerardo Fernandez, spokesman for Lopez Obrador's left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution.
FEW VOTING PROBLEMS REPORTED
The left is calling for a vote-for-vote recount, instead of just a new count of vote tally sheets as happened this week, even though Mexican law does not allow for a count of every vote.
The Federal Electoral Institute, which ran the election, said officials from all parties, as well as a million citizens who were called at random to help out on voting day, staffed polling stations and few of them reported any problem.
Carlos Sedeno, 31, an architect, said another recount would be too much. "It's like a vote of no-confidence in everyone who took part in the electoral process. There were representatives of all the parties," he said. "It's like doubting everyone's honesty."
Lopez Obrador was a master of civil resistance in his native state of Tabasco in the 1980s and 1990s when he shut down oil wells and blocked the workings of state government for weeks to protest vote fraud.
Tens of thousands of households in the state still do not pay electricity bills as part of a campaign instigated by Lopez Obrador to complain about a 1994 vote result.
The electoral court has until August 31 to rule on Lopez Obrador's challenges to the vote and until September 6 to formally declare the election winner.
Mexico's Leftist Candidate Protests Vote
Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged his supporters to take to the streets Saturday, claiming the governing party stole his victory in Mexico's extremely narrow elections.
Lopez Obrador asked protesters to be peaceful during a demonstration Saturday afternoon, but warned the government would be responsible for any angry flare-ups because officials rejected his demand for a manual recount of Sunday's vote.
His conservative rival, Felipe Calderon, meanwhile, acted as if his presidential victory was secure and took a congratulatory call from President Bush on Friday.
Mexico's top election court has yet to name a president-elect because it must first weigh complaints of illegal campaign practices and certify the vote count.
Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, has millions of extremely devoted followers and views street protests as an effective means of pressuring the government and the courts. He claims hundreds of thousands of votes for him remain uncounted, miscounted or voided, and that a manual recount would confirm that.
"We are going to provide a channel for the great anger that exists among our supporters and those who voted for us, in the face of the manipulation of the elections," said Gerardo Fernandez, spokesman for Lopez Obrador's leftist Democratic Revolution Party.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City urged Americans "to avoid downtown Mexico City and surrounding areas" during the protest, noting foreigners are prohibited by law from political activity here and that "even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence."
Calderon won by 244,000 votes, a margin of 0.6 percent, according to a final tally announced Thursday. Electoral authorities say the law allows a manual a recount only in polling places where credible evidence of irregularities exist.
Lopez Obrador's supporters say that exception applies to at least 50,000 of the approximately 130,000 polling places. But they want all the ballot boxes opened.
"Those who oppose clearing up these election results are the ones who could start to generate unrest and discontent," said Alberto Anaya, a leader of Lopez Obrador's coalition.
The parties have until Monday to file complaints with the seven-judge court, which can order investigations of the evidence, change the official results and even order new elections. The tribunal has until Sept. 6 to certify the winner, and its decision is final. The new president takes office Dec. 1.
Cheerful and confident in a meeting with foreign reporters Friday, Calderon said he would support immigration reforms in Washington and create relief programs to help Mexican farmers who will be hurt when a clause under the North American Free Trade Agreement allows for U.S. corn and bean imports in 2008.
While violent protests appear unlikely, the odds are Lopez Obrador will never recognize Calderon's victory.
"The message that he's sending is, 'they wouldn't let me win,' that the umpire was unfair, that the government was unfair," said political analyst Oscar Aguilar.
"He will never concede defeat," he added. "Once the election results are certified, he will open a permanent campaign of criticizing the government."
Lopez Obrador's campaign coordinator, Ricardo Monreal, pledged that "we will do everything peacefully and in accordance with the law." But the former mayor has in the past headed disruptive protests.
In 1996, he led farmers and fishermen in sometimes violent takeovers of state-owned oil wells to demand compensation for damages from an oil spill.
He does not tire easily of protesting: In 1995, when he raised accusations of fraud in Tabasco state elections, he led months of road caravans and marches and set up a protest camp in Mexico City's main square.
But these days, Lopez Obrador must walk a tightrope: If he appears too radical, he risks hurting his party and its chances in the next presidential elections in 2012. If he appears too moderate, he risks disappointing his core supporters.
"His political stock would increase greatly for 2012" if he found a way to concede defeat gracefully, Aguilar said. |
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