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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2006 
Lopez Obrador Apologizes to Public for Hassles
 Dudley Althaus - Houston Chronicle
| | Mexican candidate Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks to thousands of followers on Sunday, a day after Mexico's top elections court denied his demand for a complete recount. (Tomas Bravo/Reuters |
Mexico City - While still insisting on a full recount of the presidential election he says he won, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Sunday seemed to pull back, if only slightly, from the brink in his feud with federal officials.
Speaking to thousands of followers a day after Mexico's top elections court denied his demand for a complete recount, Lopez Obrador declined to announce drastic new "civil resistance" measures that many were fearing.
Instead, he asked supporters to continue their occupation of Mexico City streets and begged the population's forgiveness for the trouble he's causing them.
"It's sincerely not our intention to affect anyone," Lopez Obrador said in a speech to some 20,000 supporters in the Zocalo, Mexico City's central plaza.
"Our adversaries haven't left us any other option."
Lopez Obrador and thousands of supporters have maintained sit-ins in downtown Mexico City for more than week now, camping out under torrential rains and hail storms.
The militants have seized control of the Zocalo, key streets in the city center and several miles of the Paseo de la Reforma, one of the Mexican capital's key thoroughfares.
Their protest has snarled traffic, sucked millions of dollars in sales from the local economy and outworn their welcome among residents already struggling with the daily hassles of living in one of the world's largest and more chaotic cities.
Truckloads of Mexico City and federal police have been standing guard at the international airport because of fears that Lopez Obrador's supporters would try to shut it down.
"This isn't a personal matter. I'm not obsessed with power," Lopez Obrador insisted in his Sunday speech, answering the charges by his many critics that he suffers exactly that affliction.
Official results of the July 2 election give conservative Felipe Calderon, who is from President Vicente Fox's pro-business political party, a 244,000-vote lead. Lopez Obrador says widespread irregularities and fraud cost him election.
Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal agreed Saturday to recount some 4 million ballots — about 9 percent of the total — in nearly 12,000 voter precincts. While the tribunal denied Lopez Obrador's request for a full recount, it could reverse that decision if major irregularities turn up on the partial recount, which is to be completed by Aug. 14.
Hoping to pressure the tribunal's seven magistrates to opt for that fuller accounting, Lopez Obrador has called for a large protest in front of the tribunal's offices tonight.
Calderón Confident of Win
Sergio Javier Jiménez/El Universal
During a meeting with legislators from his conservative National Action Party (PAN), Felipe Calderón said on Sunday he was confident that the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) will ratify him as the winner of the July 2 presidential election.
"The tribunal´s procedure will ratify the decision that the Mexican people have already made," Calderón said. "The triumph will be recognized next week."
The final count by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) has given Calderón a lead of 244,000 votes out a total of 41 million cast. This count must by ratified by the tribunal to become official.
The tribunal has ordered a recount of 9 percent of the nation´s polling stations, far short of the total recount demanded by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Calderón´s left-leaning rival.
Calderón called for "profound" electoral reform, saying the current system showed signs of "exhaustion." He has called for changes including a reduction of the campaign period, less federal funding for the candidates and smaller federal legislative bodies. He added PAN lawmakers are currently drafting a proposal that would better define the roles of the IFE and the TEPJF.
"It´s vital that we begin a deep revision of Mexico´s democratic system," Calderón said. "The strength of our institutions has been overcome and is threatened by a rise in anti-democratic, anarchistic and intolerant viewpoints."
Calderón and the PAN have characterized López Obrador´s demonstrations in protest of the election´s outcome as a threat to the nation´s peace.
Accompanied by PAN national leader Manuel Espino, Calderón said that, if he is ratified as president after the partial recount, his administration´s priorities will be employment, fighting poverty and reducing crime.
Espino, meanwhile, said that Calderón had won the contest "without any doubt," and that he would be declared Mexico´s next president "very soon." |
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