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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Obrador: No Faith in Election Authorities
 Traci Carl - Associated Press
| | Lopez Obrador is demanding that the Federal Electoral Court order a ballot-by-ballot recount. |
Mexico's leftist presidential candidate said Thursday he has lost faith in Mexico's main electoral agency, and doesn't want them overseeing the national recount he is demanding.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Mexico's widely respected Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, had abandoned its autonomous role and taken become a tool of the ruling party.
"You can't take IFE people seriously," he said. "They don't act according to the law."
An official IFE count gave conservative Felipe Calderon a less than 1 percent advantage in the July 2 elections. Lopez Obrador is disputing that result in Mexico's top electoral court, in a nearly 900-page complaint demanding that the Federal Electoral Court order a ballot-by-ballot recount.
Electoral officials and President Vicente Fox's National Action Party have argued that, under Mexican law, officials can only recount results from a polling place if a party challenges them and the court finds evidence of irregularities or fraud. Lopez Obrador's party has presented challenges for about 40 percent of the polling places.
But Lopez Obrador insisted Thursday that the electoral court has the authority to order a full recount.
"There isn't anything stopping them," he said of the seven judges who will decide his fate, "unless they don't have the political will."
He refused to condemn the court, saying he wanted to first see how it rules.
If a recount is ordered, he said he would prefer to see independent observers brought in to carry out the count, instead of IFE.
Lopez Obrador alleges that vote totals were mis-tallied and even falsified in favor of Calderon. On Thursday, he said his campaign had found mathematical errors in the reports of at least 72,000 polling places.
He pledged to continue his fight on behalf of his supporters, who are expected to fill Mexico City's main plaza on Sunday, the third mass demonstration he has held since the election. He blamed Mexico's ruling elite for his loss and said the poor, who make up his main base of support, would continue to fight for him.
"For millions of Mexicans, this is about survival," he said of his election.
Lopez Obrador promised to "govern for all, but for the poor first," saying he would create government pensions and subsidies for the elderly, single mothers and millions of others struggling to make a living.
Near-daily protests continued Thursday, with Lopez Obrador supporters protesting outside Mexico's stock market.
Lopez Obrador said he didn't want the election annulled because he believes a recount will show that he really won, and "put aside doubts" about the electoral process. He said he also was following the demands of his followers, who largely want a recount.
Mexico's reformed electoral process laid the groundwork for Fox's historic victory in 2000, which ended 71 years of one-party rule. The Federal Electoral Institute has been held up internationally as a model, advising emerging democracies like Iraq and Haiti.
A poll published Thursday by El Universal newspaper found 48 percent support for a recount and 28 percent against the idea — even though 52.5 percent of those polled believe Calderon won. That compares to 38.1 percent who think Lopez Obrador was the true winner.
The polling firm Ipsos-Bimsa interviewed 1,000 adults across Mexico from July 21-24. The poll had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. |
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