Results 1 to 2 of 2

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Joliet, Il
    Posts
    10,175

    Obrador Calls for Recount in Mexico

    Lopez Obrador Calls for Recount in Mexico
    By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer
    57 minutes ago

    MEXICO CITY - Mexico faced weeks and possibly months of uncertainty after the leftist presidential candidate, trailing his conservative rival by 1 percentage point Tuesday, demanded a full recount to find what he believes are millions of missing votes.

    Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador stopped short of calling Sunday's vote a fraud, nor did he call on his followers to take the streets in protest. But he said there were many irregularities, including large numbers of missing votes _ claims that could take months to clear up.

    Tensions were rising Tuesday in southern Oaxaca state, where striking teachers occupied businesses, boarded buses and blocked roads despite pledges that they would halt their sometimes violent campaign until the presidency had been decided.

    Electoral officials said a preliminary count gave Felipe Calderon an advantage of about 400,000 votes over Lopez Obrador, but they refused to declare a winner until an official count begins Wednesday. That process usually takes about a week, but it can be delayed by challenges. Even if a winner is declared, those results can be challenged in court.

    Although both candidates immediately claimed victory, financial markets and the peso rallied for a second day Tuesday on the apparent win by the fiscally conservative former energy secretary. Calderon told Radio Formula that "the people are right, the markets are right" in assuming he has won.

    He said Mexico must now focus on the future. "The problems are big, but Mexico is bigger than its problems," Calderon said.

    There were some fears that Lopez Obrador's refusal to accept Calderon's apparent victory could throw the country into turmoil.

    "There are about 3 million votes missing," Lopez Obrador told reporters at his campaign headquarters Monday night.

    The former Mexico City mayor said officials had estimated a voter turnout of at least 41 million, yet preliminary tallies by Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute only showed about 38 million ballots cast.

    As a result, the institute's first count is something that "we cannot accept," he said.

    "We have a commitment to the citizens to defend the will of millions of Mexicans," Lopez Obrador said. "We are going to employ whatever legal means."

    Jesus Ortega, Lopez Obrador's campaign manager, added that "in some cases, we are going to demand the opening of ballot packages and vote-by-vote recounts."

    Members of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party said there were indications that the preliminary count may have been manipulated to favor Calderon's National Action Party, also the party of outgoing President Vicente Fox. Electoral officials did not respond to the allegation.

    Lopez Obrador claimed irregularities that included badly reported results and the double-counting of votes. He also asked how it was possible that his party won 155 of 300 districts without winning the presidency.

    Calderon spoke like a president-elect, promising to build a conciliatory government. He praised Robert Madrazo, the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, for his "mature, responsible attitude" in conceding defeat Monday.

    In an interview Tuesday with the Televisa network, Luis Carlos Ugalde, president of the Federal Electoral Institute, said officials would review accusations of irregularities during the official count.

    With nearly 98.5 percent of polling stations reporting, Calderon had 36.38 percent and Lopez Obrador had 35.34 percent. Madrazo was a distant third with about 21 percent, and minor candidates and write-ins accounted for the rest.

    Calderon brushed off comparisons to the electoral crisis that followed the U.S. 2000 election, in which George W. Bush narrowly defeated Al Gore. He joked the U.S. could learn from Mexico.

    George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, said "the Mexican system is much more transparent" than the U.S. system.

    Mexico has a single voter registry, a uniform photo identity card for voters and a national election law, he said, whereas "in the U.S., you have this crazy quilt of 50 state laws." Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute is also legally independent of the government, while in the U.S., elected state officials tend to oversee the system, he said.

    Even if the vote challenges are resolved, no party was close to obtaining a majority in congressional elections, meaning the next president will have to reach out to his rivals.

    ___

    On the Net:

    Federal Electoral Institute: http://www.ife.org.mx (has English language site)
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    florida
    Posts
    1,726
    Did you have any doubt that Pres. Bush wasn't going to mess into the Mexican election

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •