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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2006 
AMLO Claims Recount Narrows Rival's Lead
 Sofia Miselem - AFP
| | Democratic Revolution Party struggles with Federal Preventive Police officers during a protest in front of the chamber of deputies in Mexico City. Mexico's rivals in the July 2 presidential election quibbled over a few thousand votes recounted by election officials, as followers of the losing candidate claimed police brutality outside Congress. (AFP) |
Mexico's rivals in the July 2 presidential election quibbled over a few thousand votes recounted by election officials, as followers of the losing candidate claimed police brutality outside Congress.
"We were badly beaten ... they tossed teargas at us and they beat us about the body, on the legs, shins, arms, elbows and nose," Congresswoman Dolores Padierna told Formato 21 radio on Tuesday.
Padierna said the police raid came late Monday as a group of her colleagues and 200 followers of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador were setting up camp outside Congress to press for a full vote recount of the presidential election.
She said the camp was not obstructing traffic nor access to the congressional building, but that hundreds of soldiers and police officers suddenly appeared on scene "to evict us" from the area.
The police said in a statement it had deployed to clear access to the building after trying but failing to talk with the protesters.
Some media photographers covering the event also complained that police beat them up.
An official with Lopez Obrador's campaign claimed on Monday that his conservative rival Felipe Calderon lost 14,140 votes in the recount of nine percent of the ballots.
But a spokesman for Calderon, of the ruling National Action Party (PAN), rejected the claim, saying there was a difference of only 1,500 votes "for one side or another," and insisting the partial recount confirmed the conservative victory.
The Federal Electoral Tribunal, which had ordered the new tally, did not immediately announce the outcome of the partial recount that concluded on Sunday night.
The tribunal, the ultimate arbiter of electoral disputes, has until September 6 to formally announce a president-elect.
It earlier rejected the demand for the full recount made by Lopez Obrador and his followers, who for the past two weeks have camped out in downtown Mexico City, disrupting traffic and business to protest what they claim was massive electoral fraud.
Results issued after the July 2 voting showed Calderon winning the election with a lead of only 240,000 votes, or 0.58 percentage points, over Lopez Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
In addition to a full recount, Lopez Obrador wants the electoral tribunal to annul results from polling stations where he says irregularities were noted.
"If one annuls the polling stations where there are too many votes, we win by 52,400 votes, if one annuls those where there are missing ballots, we win by 183,000," said Horacio Duarte, who heads the leftist candidate's legal team.
If results from all 7,914 polling stations where irregularities occurred are annulled, Lopez Obrador would win by 480,000 votes, Duarte claimed in an interview with the Televisa network.
Calderon's camp emphatically denied the claim.
"We can guarantee that in 98 percent of the polling stations there were no errors," said PAN spokesman Cesar Neva, insisting the partial recount "confirms Felipe Calderon's victory."
Calderon lashed out at Lopez Obrador for refusing to recognize the outcome of the balloting.
"In order to have democracy, one needs democrats," he said. "There is no country other than Mexico where the loser arbitrarily reject the results."
But Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, has threatened to step up his street protests if Calderon is declared winner.
"I propose that we mobilize ... when they intend to hand over the confirmation of the president-elect to the right-wing candidate," he told some 30,000 demonstrators in downtown Mexico City Sunday.
He urged his supporters to disrupt Independence Day celebrations on September 15 and 16 and a legislative session on September 1.
Thousands of Lopez Obrador supporters have been camped out in Mexico City since July 31, blocking eight kilometers (five miles) of a main avenue and preventing access to much of the historic and financial downtown area.
Lopez Obrador, who has a long history of leading massive street protests, said the camp-in would continue as long as necessary. |
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