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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2006 
Mexico's Apparent Winner Looks Ready to Rule
 BBC News
| | A member of the Mexican presidential guard stands next of TV cameras as Felipe Calderon (R), presidential candidate of the National Action Party (PAN), attends a news conference in Mexico City. (Reuters/Tomas Bravo) |
With a winner in Mexico's 2 July presidential election yet to be declared, the BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Mexico City speaks to supporters of the conservative Felipe Calderon, who despite being given a narrow lead in the official count seems to be attracting less attention than his rival.
For the past week Mexicans have been gripped by the story of three fishermen who say they were adrift in the Pacific for nine months. They say they lived off dead birds and saw sharks circling around their boat.
It is tempting to use their alleged experiences as a metaphor for what is happening in the never-ending saga of the still unresolved presidential race.
Talk of dead-duck candidates and Machiavellian characters circling with plots have kept this relatively new multi-party democracy at crisis point for nearly two months.
Until now all the attention has gone the way of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left-wing candidate. Thousands of his supporters have turned much of the capital city into a camp site. All of them are there to protest against the result, which they say was marred by fraud.
But what about the apparent winner and his supporters?
Well, Felipe Calderon has not been seen anything like as much as his rival. But his supporters are just as passionate.
Just try going to La Valentina restaurant in the swanky part of Mexico City. The area is called Colonia Condesa. It could be California.
Amid the sounds of a mariachi band you meet people like Angel. He co-owns the place and looks as though he has just stepped out of the pages of a Hemmingway novel.
"We don't need these protests," he says in an accent forged in his childhood home of Cuba. "They are ruining my business, why don't they call it off."
Power base
His view is shared by Diego Perez. In his shirt-sleeves and jocular, he is enjoying a break from his day job. And what is that? Well he is, in fact, the personal lawyer of Felipe Calderon.
During the election his boss was criticised for insinuating Mr Lopez Obrador would become another fiery leader like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
It got Mr Calderon into trouble. But his lawyer is not quite so squeamish.
"We don't want a Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro," he says. "We want democracy."
He adds that Mexico is trying to get out of what he calls the third world. "Everything that is going on after the election on behalf of Mr Lopez Obrador is totally illegal," he says.
It is a subtle, but important, point he makes.
Mr Calderon appeals to Mexicans who believe their country should leave the attitudes and actions of a developing country behind. They are Mr Calderon's power base.
Mexico has more millionaires than Germany - it has a huge and growing middle class and many of its members see the stability championed by Mr Calderon as preferable to the unpredictability they say is on offer from Mr Lopez Obrador.
Confidence
At the Qi gym a short distance across the city you sense they share the same ideals.
The sound of the mariachis gives way to the beat of a samba class but the political mood music is the same.
Helena Wygard is getting ready for her routine. "I don't think Felipe Calderon will be a great leader," she says directly. "But he will be a good one. He is already planning his programme and should be good for Mexico."
Certainly Mr Calderon shows all the outward signs of a man who is about to cross the threshold of true power.
The posters that surround him at public events read: Felipe Calderon, President of Mexico 2006-2012. No ifs, no buts. The confidence that he will take up his six-year term permeates his words, his actions and his supporters.
The fishermen may have been ridiculed by some, challenged by others, but Felipe Calderon and his supporters believe they have the wind in their sails, though they still have to navigate the rocks that Mr Lopez Obrador may yet put in their way.
Mexican Election Result Unchanged by Recounts
Reuters
Mexico City - Mexico's contested presidential election result giving victory to conservative candidate Felipe Calderon has not been changed by recounts and annulments at some polling stations, electoral court judges ruled on Monday.
The seven judges voted unanimously to reject most of the legal complaints by leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who said there was a huge fraud at the July 2 vote.
Calderon, a former energy minister from the ruling National Action Party, won the election by just 0.58 of a percentage point or 244,000 votes, the initial result showed.
The judges stopped short of formally declaring Calderon the winner but said there were only marginal changes to the original results from contested polling stations. |
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