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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2006 
Judges Rule on Mexico's Bitter Presidential Vote
 Kieran Murray - Reuters
| | Thousands gather in support of Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to demand a ballot by ballot recount of the July 2 elections at the main Zocalo plaza in Mexico City, Mexico on Sunday Aug. 27, 2006. (AP/Marco Ugarte) |
Mexico's electoral court rejected some of the left-wing candidate's legal challenges to last month's disputed presidential vote on Monday as it began a long session to rule on his allegations of massive fraud.
The court's seven judges were widely expected to reject most of the fraud claims and confirm the victory of conservative ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon.
In a long statement read out by a court official, the judges quickly dismissed some of the 240 separate complaints lodged by leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
But they did not immediately say whether Calderon's razor-thin victory in the July 2 vote would stand, and it was still possible that they would accept some of Lopez Obrador's allegations.
The court session, broadcast live on television, could last for several hours.
Lopez Obrador says there were serious irregularities at more than half the polling stations. He has demanded a full recount of all 41 million votes cast and has launched street protests that have shut down central Mexico City.
Lopez Obrador insists he won the election and that a court ruling in favor of Calderon would merely complete the fraud.
"It would be an abuse of the people's rights, a rupture of the constitutional order and a coup d'etat, which is offensive to millions of Mexicans," he told supporters on Sunday in Mexico City's central Zocalo square, where they have been camping overnight in a sit-in for almost a month.
Calderon, who campaigned on pro-business policies and would be an ally of the United States, says the election was clean and has called on Lopez Obrador to drop his street protests.
Lopez Obrador, who has vowed to overhaul economic policies to put the poor first, insists he will not give up.
The political crisis is the toughest test of Mexico's democracy since President Vicente Fox's election victory six years ago ended seven decades of one-party rule.
STILL IN DISPUTE
The electoral court already has ruled out a full recount and instead ordered votes counted again at just 9 percent of the polling stations. That failed to end the dispute.
Calderon said the partial recount showed only minimal changes in the vote, while Lopez Obrador said it proved many ballot boxes were tampered with. He says almost 200,000 votes disappeared from some or were discovered in others.
The original vote count gave Calderon victory with a margin of some 244,000 votes, or just 0.58 percentage point. The court has until September 6 to formally declare a president-elect.
The electoral court judges are expected to rule on whether some polling station results should be annulled, and also on a wider complaint by the left that funding from business leaders and Fox's vocal support for Calderon's campaign warrant scrapping the entire election.
Their decisions are final and cannot be appealed.
If Calderon's victory is confirmed by the court, Lopez Obrador says he will either lead a civil resistance movement against his rival or set up some kind of parallel government.
"We are going to create our own institutions," he said on Sunday. "Sovereignty lives in the people, the people rule." |
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