 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Calderon Rejects Obrador's Call for Recount
 Reuters
| | Felipe Calderon, of the National Action Party, PAN, and possible winner of the last July 2 presidential elections, listens to businessmen during a meeting in Mexico City, Mexico, on Thursday, July 20, 2006. (AP/Alexandre Meneghini) |
The conservative winner of Mexico's disputed election rejected his rival's call on Monday that he endorse a vote-by-vote recount and said there was no evidence of the widespread fraud claimed by the leftist.
Felipe Calderon, who won the July 2 vote by a hair's breadth, refused Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's plea that he also press for a recount.
Lopez Obrador, a fiery left-winger, claims vote tallies were rigged in the July 2 election to help the ruling party's candidate, and he wrote Calderon a letter saying that if Calderon agreed to a new count, he would abide by the result.
The decision to order a recount can only be made by the electoral court, which is examining Lopez Obrador's fraud allegations. But he argues that if Calderon were confident the election was clean, he would push for a recount.
"If you pronounce yourself in favor of a recount of all the votes and the electoral court orders this step, then I offer a promise to accept the results, if they favor you, and not to call more protests," Lopez Obrador wrote.
"In the same way, you would have to accept the court's ruling if I end up winning in the recount," he said in the letter, printed on his Party of the Democratic Revolution's letterhead bearing a beaming Lopez Obrador giving the thumbs up.
Calderon, who led the final vote count by 244,000 votes out of some 41 million cast, immediately responded with his own letter saying the election was "clean, free and democratic."
"The true defense of democracy consists of respect for the popular will expressed at the polls and for the institutions responsible for organizing and certifying the electoral process," Calderon wrote.
"This is a time for national unity, harmony and peace. That is the Mexican people's will," he added.
'IRREGULARITIES AND FRAUD'
Lopez Obrador's lawyers have submitted complaints of vote-rigging for about 50,000 polling stations, which they say is enough to warrant a vote recount at all 130,000 stations.
In his letter, which described the election as "plagued with irregularities and fraud," Lopez Obrador said he would crank up civil resistance protests if there was no recount.
On Monday, Lopez Obrador aides said they had found evidence of "arithmetical errors" at some 70,000 polling stations, with vote counts not matching the total of ballots.
"At the time of filling in tally sheets, they artificially inflated and reduced votes," aide Claudia Scheinbaum said.
She said there were discrepancies with ballots making up 3.88 percent of the vote -- much more than the 0.58 percent margin by which Calderon won.
Calderon, a lawyer with a degree from Harvard, says there is no legal basis for a recount, and President Vicente Fox's office has ruled out a political solution to the stalemate.
"Solutions for elections are legal solutions," Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar said. "It's up to the electoral court to resolve it. Laws are never negotiated, they are applied."
The electoral court has until the end of August to rule on the challenge and must name a president by September 6.
With Mexico split down the middle between left and right, the mood on the street is tense. Lopez Obrador supporters are holding round-the-clock vigils outside regional voting centers and some protesters are on hunger strike outside the court.
While the protests have so far been peaceful, some Lopez Obrador supporters kicked Calderon's car last week and anti-Lopez Obrador vandals destroyed artwork backing him. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us