 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Recount has Public Support
 El Universal
| | Supporters of Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from the Democratic Peasant Union (UCD) block the toll booths of the XXI Century highway near the town of San Juan Ameacac, Mexico on Thursday July 27, 2006. The road was blocked for approximately 2 hours to demand a vote by vote recount of the July 2 presidential elections and also to restore the emergency evacuation roads for the towns near the Popocatepetl volcano. (AP/Joel Merino) |
A majority of Mexicans believe Felipe Calderón won the July 2 presidential election while less than 40 percent believe Andrés Manuel López Obrador triumphed, according to a survey made public on Thursday.
Also Thursday, the government sent a "message of calm" and promised to "ensure that the laws are respected" after López Obrador proclaimed he had won the vote amid threats by his followers to radicalize their protests on his behalf.
In a survey published Thursday by the daily EL UNIVERSAL, 52.5 percent of those polled said Calderon was the winner of the election, and consequently the president-elect, while 38.1 percent said they felt the former Mexico City mayor had won.
The poll also found that, despite those numbers, 48 percent of the public supports López Obrador´s challenge of the election results and his demand for a new vote-by-vote recount of the ballots.
The survey by Ipsos-Bimsa showed 28 percent of the public opposes a recount.
Fifty-three percent of those polled said they felt the election process was conducted satisfactorily, while 24 percent criticized it.
Regarding López Obrador´s call for "peaceful" civil resistance to demand a recount, 43 percent of the public approves of the demonstrations while 37 percent disapproves and does not agree with the tactic of taking the protest into the streets.
López Obrador has scheduled on Sunday the third rally to press for a recount and it is expected that - as in past rallies - hundreds of thousands of his supporters will gather in Mexico City´s main square, the Zócalo, for the event.
The survey published by EL UNIVERSAL was conducted among about 1,000 randomly selected Mexicans between July 21-24 and has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.
Legislators on Thursday reacted to the survey by accusing their rival´s campaign of waging media wars to influence public opinion.
"The López Obrador camp is trying to create a false perception of victory via broad, unsubstantiated accusations of fraud," said Jorge Triana of Calderón´s National Action Party (PAN).
Dep. Eduardo Espinosa of the Democratic Revolution Party said: "The PAN´s triumphalism is broadcast by the media and the public thinks it´s real."
Meanwhile, Fox administration spokesman Rubén Aguilar said the government "is not commenting on the strategies of those who were candidates," although he emphasized that it was up to the judicial authorities to determine the new president after the challenge raised by López Obrador.
Aguilar also said the president´s office "calls on the citizens to respect the law and conduct themselves in accord with democratic values, and (calls on) all political forces to pursue their conflicts within the framework of our institutions, not on the fringes of them."
He added that the government was sending "to ... society a message of calm (since) the institutions are handling any type of conflict and the president´s office respects the freedom of expression and trusts in the responsibility of all the political actors to act within the democratic framework."
Regarding the recent announcements made by López Obrador campaign staffers that they would radicalize their "civil resistance actions," Aguilar said the government was confident that those demonstrations would be peaceful and adhere to the Constitution, but he warned that the authorities would enforce the law.
He said that "this government will ensure that the laws are respected and will act in an institutional manner, and it trusts that all political actors will be responsible in their actions with respect to their voters and to society as a whole." |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us