Partial Mexico vote recount sheds no light over fraud allegations

The country’s electoral tribunal reduced Felipe Calderon lead by just over 4,000 votes. 

Photo: Partial Mexico vote recount sheds no light over fraud allegations

In a new setback for Mexico’s presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the country’s Electoral Tribunal confirmed that the the partial vote recount of the disputed race won’t erase the lead of the ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon. However, judges failed to declare a winner and 80 millions of Mexicans will have to wait until September 6 to know who will be their president between 2007 and 2013.

"It's clear the tribunal isn't up to the task. It's preparing to impose the right's candidate", said Gerardo Fernandez, spokesman of the Mexico’s leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), in what was the first reaction to the announcement of the country’s Electoral Tribunal. Mr. Fernandez addressed hundreds of leftist protesters in Mexico City’s Zocalo square who demand a full recount of votes or new elections.

The court announced the number of votes it had annulled as the result of 375 challenges in the July 2 election, reducing Calderon's 240,000-vote lead by just over 4,000 votes. PRD supporters believe the results were rigged and the tribunal is not independent to rule on the matter.

The court annulled more than 230,000 votes, with the ruling National Action Party losing 81,080 votes, the largest loss of any party. Lopez Obrador's coalition lost 76,897 votes, and the rest of the annulled votes were divided among smaller parties.

Lopez Obrador’s PRD Party alleged fraud in the presidential race, as well as another irregularities during the campaign. The PRD believes Calderon slight lead was rigged and challenged results in courts but failed to provide with conclusive evidence about the fraudulent events denounced.

To put pressure over courts and back its denounces, the PRD has led a civil disobedience campaign, which included street demonstrations and protest camps that have snarled traffic in its stronghold, the country’s Capital. PRD leader Lopez Obrador said Sunday he would ask his supporters during a rally on Sept. 16 - Mexico's Independence Day - whether he should declare himself the "alternative" president-elect.

As the country waits for definitive results on the presidential race, a leftist candidate won the governor's race in Mexico's volatile southernmost state of Chiapas, edging out a hopeful backed by President Vicente Fox's party by about 6,300 votes, electoral officials said Sunday. Juan Sabines, of the Democratic Revolution Party, obtained 553,270 votes, compared to 546,988 for Jose Antonio Aguilar, who was running with the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which controlled Mexico's presidency from 1929 until 2000.

Hernan Etchaleco
Pravda.Ru