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| Massive Protest Demands Mexican Presidential Election Recount |
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More than 1 million supporters of left-wing presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador marched in the country's capital on Sunday, demanding a recount of the July 2 general election. Protesting what they believed to be large-scale fraud in the election, supporters of the leftist candidate of the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) Obrador came from across the country to demand a vote-by-vote manual recount of the ballot. Hector Rozas, an engineer form Mexico state, demanded the government respect the poor, saying the protestors were only asking for transparency and openness about the election. According to results published by Mexico's official electoral body, the Federal Electoral Agency (IFE), Obrador lost to the National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderon by just 244,000 votes, or 0.58 percentage points. However Obrador said that electoral authorities had counted many votes for him as null. In addition, Obrador's legal team had handed over boxes of videos, documents and recordings which he said proved that fraud had been involved in the election. In addition, Obrador has submitted the case to the Federal Electoral Tribunal, the ultimate arbitrator in electoral disputes, which has to officially declare who will replace outgoing President Vicente Fox by Sept. 6. Echoing Obrador's call to "struggle peacefully", his supporters have already launched a series of protests in Mexico City and several other cities since Wednesday, charging the IFE with fraud. Accompanied by leftist leaders and his two sons, Obrador took part in the protest. He also invited singers, actors and intellectuals to participate, vowing to call for more protests if the Federal Electoral Tribunal didn't agree to the demand for a recount. Meanwhile, PAN candidate Calderon called on his supporters to keep calm, saying he had gained his victory by votes, not by street protests. The authorities deployed nearly 3,000 policemen to control the protests, during which there were no physical conflicts or casualties reported. (Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2006) |
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