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Conservative scrapes victory in Mexico amid claims of fraud
Felipe Calderon, the conservative candidate in Mexico's presidential race, seemed to have clinched a slim victory as a national count ended yesterday. But his left-wing rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, refused to give up, threatening to plunge the country into political crisis.
Mr Lopez Obrador rejected the electoral commission's announcement that his rival had pipped him to the presidency by just 0.57 per cent of the votes. He promised to take his allegations of fraud to Mexico's highest electoral court, the federal election tribune, and demand a manual recount of all 41 million ballots cast on Sunday.
If he follows through on his words, the best-case scenario is weeks of uncertainty and legal wrangling.
The stand-off could also spill over into the streets. Mr Lopez Obrador, the austere but charismatic former mayor of Mexico City whose "Robin Hood" campaign focused on lifting the poor and dismantling the privileges of the country's elite, has deep support in the capital, which he can quickly mobilise. The 52-year-old leader of the Party of the Democratic Revolution would have little difficulty plunging much of the country into weeks of civil and possibly violent disobedience if he chose to.
Last night he ordered his backers to rally in the main square, the Zocalo, on Saturday to protest against the result. He has form: in 1994, after losing a crooked Tabasco governor's race, his supporters blockaded the plaza to prevent the winning candidate from taking office.
"We cannot accept these results," he said yesterday. "We are always going to act in a responsible manner, but at the same time, we have to defend the citizens' will."
The count began Wednesday and continued through the night into yesterday. Mr Lopez Obrador was particularly enraged because in the first hours of returns he held a surprise lead. But as results came in from the more conservative north of the country, home to tough entrepreneurs, the balance tipped towards his opponent from the ruling National Action Party.
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1164574.ece
If he follows through on his words, the best-case scenario is weeks of uncertainty and legal wrangling.
The stand-off could also spill over into the streets. Mr Lopez Obrador, the austere but charismatic former mayor of Mexico City whose "Robin Hood" campaign focused on lifting the poor and dismantling the privileges of the country's elite, has deep support in the capital, which he can quickly mobilise. The 52-year-old leader of the Party of the Democratic Revolution would have little difficulty plunging much of the country into weeks of civil and possibly violent disobedience if he chose to.
Last night he ordered his backers to rally in the main square, the Zocalo, on Saturday to protest against the result. He has form: in 1994, after losing a crooked Tabasco governor's race, his supporters blockaded the plaza to prevent the winning candidate from taking office.
"We cannot accept these results," he said yesterday. "We are always going to act in a responsible manner, but at the same time, we have to defend the citizens' will."
The count began Wednesday and continued through the night into yesterday. Mr Lopez Obrador was particularly enraged because in the first hours of returns he held a surprise lead. But as results came in from the more conservative north of the country, home to tough entrepreneurs, the balance tipped towards his opponent from the ruling National Action Party.
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1164574.ece
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Felipe Calderon had 35.88% support with all 41 million votes counted on Thursday. His left-wing rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, had 35.31% of the vote.
The two were separated by about 220,000 votes.
Calderon led supporters in a party at the ruling National Action Party offices, and called on his adversaries to forget a bad-tempered election that plunged Mexico into political turmoil.
He said: "If the contest is behind us, our differences are behind us. Now is the hour for unity and agreements between Mexicans."
But Lopez Obrador, Mexico City's former mayor, insisted that he won the election, said it was plagued with irregularities and pledged to fight the result in an electoral tribunal.
Street protests
He called a rally of supporters in Mexico City's central square on Saturday, raising fears of street protests and further unrest as well as weeks of legal wrangling similar to that which followed the US election in 2000.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/240A6B65-6595-405B-AFC0-AEFA436437CC.htm