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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2006 
Mexico Election Court to Rule on Recount
 Catherine Bremer - Reuters
| | Supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), march towards Zocalo square in Mexico City August 20, 2006. The letters say 'Vote'. (Tomas Bravo/Reuters) |
Mexico's electoral court will give its verdict on Monday on claims of foul play in the July 2 presidential election, and is widely expected to reject leftists' allegations that the vote was rigged against them.
The court will hold a public session at 8 a.m. (1300 GMT) to give the results of a recount this month at 9 percent of polling stations, a court spokesman said on Sunday.
It will also rule on complaints of misconduct at tens of thousands of polling stations where it decided against recounts, and a wider complaint by the left that funding from business leaders and vocal support from President Vicente Fox for the ruling conservative party's campaign warrant annulling the election.
It was not clear whether the court would give a revised vote count for the overall election, in which conservative Felipe Calderon came out ahead with a margin of some 244,000 votes out of 41 million cast.
The court has until Sept 6. to declare a new president.
Mexico has been in turmoil since the election, with Calderon planning his cabinet while leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has led massive street protests and sit-ins to push for a full recount of all votes cast.
The electoral court is widely expected to reject Lopez Obrador's demand and most analysts expect it will eventually confirm pro-business former energy minister Calderon as president-elect.
But Lopez Obrador, a former Indian-rights activist who wants to overhaul Mexico's political and economic systems to favor the poor, has vowed to prevent Calderon taking office on December 1.
He says if Calderon is named president without a full recount, he will continue street protests, which have caused traffic mayhem in Mexico City, and disrupt Fox's annual state of the nation address to Congress on Friday.
CIVIL RESISTANCE
Lopez Obrador told supporters on Sunday to prepare for a debate at a party convention next month on where to take their fight next.
He said leftists, who will convene in Mexico City from September 16, could vote for him to head a civil resistance movement in opposition, or elect him leader of a leftist government in parallel.
"They are going to mock us, laugh at us and say we are crazy to convoke the national convention," Lopez Obrador told supporters in the city's central Zocalo square.
"We are going to create our own institutions. ... Sovereignty lives in the people, the people rule," he said.
Lopez Obrador led opinion polls at the start of the campaign but slipped behind after Calderon portrayed him as a danger to Mexico and likened him to fiery Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
The leftist calls Fox, whose 2000 election victory ended 71 years of one-party rule, a "traitor to democracy" and accuses him of using public funds to help Calderon's campaign.
Lopez Obrador filed complaints of vote-tampering at around 50,000 polling stations, but the court opted to order a recount at just 11,839 of them, about 9 percent of the national total.
The session on Monday could wrap up quickly if judges group the legal challenges into batches, or run for hours if they go through them one by one, court sources said.
The left got a small morale boost on Sunday when election officials in the largely Maya Indian state of Chiapas said a recount had confirmed that Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution won a contested gubernatorial election there earlier this month by half a percentage point.
(Additional reporting by Anahi Rama and Miguel Angel Gutierrez) |
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