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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Lopez Obrador Refuses to Recognize Rival
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
| | Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holds a document during a news conference in Mexico City, Mexico on Thursday July 12, 2006. Mexico's ruling party was on Thursday finishing written responses designed to knock down a barrage of appeals filed by the leftist Democratic Revolution Party in Mexico's disputed presidential race. Lopez Obrador plans a massive rally Sunday to promote his cause. Tens of thousands of his supporters left towns and cities across Mexico on Wednesday, driving caravans to the capital to participate in the demonstration. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) |
Mexico's leftist presidential candidate promised Friday to stop calling protests if there is a recount of the vote but said he would never recognize his conservative rival as president.
"I am not going to recognize these elections as clean," Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.
An official vote tally gave Felipe Calderon a 244,000-vote advantage. But the Federal Electoral Tribunal must decide on a slew of appeals by Aug. 31 and declare a president-elect by Sept. 6 — a decision that cannot be appealed.
In a nearly 900-page legal challenge, Lopez Obrador claims widespread vote fraud and illicit government and corporate support for Calderon. He has called for a manual, ballot-by-ballot recount of the July 2 election.
He objected to electoral officials opening ballot boxes, arguing they are trying to fix the vote. Electoral authorities say they are simply extracting documents that political parties have requested to support legal challenges.
Lopez Obrador called on his supporters to "set up camp outside the 300 district council offices ... peacefully, and the camps should have video cameras."
In an interview with the national Azteca television network Friday, Calderon urged viewers "that we not respond to provocations, that we trust our authorities, that we respect our laws and get to work for a Mexico that lives in peace."
Calderon has rejected Lopez Obrador's demand for a recount, but said "if the (electoral) tribunal should order a recount at some polling place, we would understand there was a legal basis for it."
President Vicente Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, defended electoral authorities, claiming polls show that the majority of Mexicans trust them.
Aguilar said, however, that "it is necessary to continue polishing and improving our electoral system to make it even better."
Lopez Obrador, who has often used street protests to get his way, was calling a massive rally Sunday in Mexico City's main plaza. His supporters were also marching to the Federal Electoral Tribunal on Friday to demand a recount. |
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