Flicker of hope for jilted presidential candidate after lawsuit (Obrador)

Flicker of hope for jilted presidential candidate after lawsuit

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/07/26/zocalosquare_wideweb__470x308,0.jpg
Inflamed by loss … supporters of Mr Lopez Obrador spell out the words
"vote by vote" during a candlelight protest in Mexico City's Zocalo Square.
Photo: AFP

July 27, 2006

MEXICO CITY: Supporters of the presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador have held protest vigils over the disputed July 2 election.

Mr Lopez Obrador filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday, charging Mexico's electoral board with criminal omission of duties for not stopping negative advertising during the final weeks of the campaign. It is his latest gambit in a bid to force a recount.

The leader of the Democratic Revolutionary Party fell 244,000 votes short of his opponent, Felipe Calderon, of the National Action Party, and has since pressed for a recount of all 41 million votes, charging that the ballot was tainted by fraud and mismanagement.

His appeal is now before a seven-judge electoral tribunal. Its decision, expected by August 31, could have one of several outcomes: a partial or full recount; a new election; or dismissal of Mr Lopez Obrador's appeal. On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of his supporters are expected to march on the Mexico City's historic centre.
(snip/...)

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/flicker-of-hope-for-jilted-presidential-candidate-after-lawsuit/2006/07/26/1153816254845.html

It's amazing how the media trivializes this event by using this word.

Obrador really thought he had a chance. He really believed that just because there were strong signs of FRAUD, that his complaints would be heard, and he would emerge victorious.

THERE WAS NO WAY "THEY" WERE GOING TO LET A LIBERAL WIN.

Just like there is NO WAY they are going to let the Dems win here in '06 or '08. That's just the way it is.

He should ask for the Presidency and his supporters should shut the country down, if necessary.

The fraud was obvious and widespread -- other way to look at it unless your a propagandist...he won the election and I hope he and his supporters are willing to go the limit for democracy in Mexico.

By Kevin Diaz
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

MEXICO CITY - Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who finished a close second in the disputed July 2 Mexican presidential balloting, ratcheted up the ongoing election standoff Wednesday by declaring himself "the president of Mexico."

Cesar Nava, a spokesman for ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon, who won the election by a margin of barely a half percent of the 41 million votes cast, dismissed the claim as "messianic."

The election results are now before a federal electoral tribunal, where Lopez Obrador, a left-leaning populist, has brought charges of widespread fraud and demanded a "vote for vote" recount.

His claim to victory was made in an interview on the U.S. Spanish-language channel Univision ...

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/15130224.htm

Mexico still have about five weeks to make a decision on the election, but the corporate media has already decided what the verdict is.

Rangel: Vote recount in Mexico might mitigate mistrust
Enrique Rangel, SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR
Thursday, July 27, 2006

~snip~
Is López Obrador loco because he demands a full vote recount? That's what his opponents would like everyone to believe. Yet, though the recount would be long and cumbersome, I wouldn't be surprised if the Tribunal agrees with him.

Here's why.

The election was so close that if the seven-member panel declares Calderón the winner without a full recount, he will have a tough time governing.

López Obrador is no Al Gore who, while disagreeing with the U.S. Supreme Court decision to stop a full recount in Florida in the 2000 election, abided by the high court's ruling that, in essence, awarded the White House to George W. Bush. No, López Obrador will raise hell if the tribunal votes against the recount. And, as all of Mexico was reminded on July 16 when an estimated 1 million PRD loyalists protested the election results, he knows how to mobilize the masses.

López Obrador has warned that if there is no full recount, there will be a series of massive acts of civil disobedience, even after Calderón is sworn in. Although I doubt the protests would have a major impact in the long run, the perredistas (as PRD members are called) could make life difficult for Calderón where it matters most — in Congress.

Although, at least for the next three years, Calderón's PAN will control 35 percent of the seats in both chambers of Congress, the PRD will control 30 percent. Through alliances with smaller parties, particularly with the once-mighty Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI — which has not forgiven the PAN and President Vicente Fox for ending its 71-year rule in the 2000 election — the perredistas could easily derail Calderon's legislative agenda. That's what the PRI did to Fox until this year when the party was the largest in Congress. That also explains why about 3 million Mexicans have migrated to the United States, mostly illegally, during Fox's tenure.
(snip/...)

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/07/27rangel_edit.html

Pressure on judges in Mexico political crisis

Thursday, July 27, 2006 Posted: 1421 GMT (2221 HKT)

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Forty-one million people turned out to vote, but Mexico's fiercely disputed presidential election now sits with seven judges whose decisions could steady a shaky democracy or plunge it deeper into crisis.

The July 2 election is challenged by leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who lost the official count by a hair but claims it was rigged and has taken his fight to Mexico's top electoral court.

Its magistrates, six men and one woman, must balance the rival candidates' demands and find a solution that gives credibility to the election and breaks the political deadlock.
(snip)

Outside the court's offices, surrounded by spiked fences, student supporters of Lopez Obrador recently held a hunger strike. A sign taped to the gates said: "We trust the tribunal. Don't let us down."
(snip/)

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/07/27/mexico.judges.reut/

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19840102-38199,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13924385/


"Meanwhile, the tide of public opinion is turning against Lopez Obrador. One poll found that 60 percent of Mexicans oppose a recount. If an election were held today, another poll found, Calderon would win easily."

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/07/24/Worldandnation/For_Mexicans__democra.shtml