Mexico's Populist Tilts at a Privileged Elite

Mexico's Populist Tilts at a Privileged Elite
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: June 17, 2006

MEXICO CITY, June 16 — It is the fourth stop on a long, rainy day of campaigning, but when the leftist candidate rolls into the small coastal town of Tonalá, in southern Mexico, the soaked crowd comes alive with deafening chants of "Obrador! Obrador!"

The candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, gray-haired and slightly stooped, with a nasal voice and a boyish, freckled face, seems to suck up their energy, amplify it, and hurl it back in the form of a simple message. For too long, he booms, politicians, business owners and their families have gotten rich and evaded taxes while the working class has remained mired in poverty.

"The poor pay taxes on everything they buy," he says, cutting to the heart of his theme. "Those of the pure upper class, the influential, don't pay the taxes."

With less than three weeks before the July 2 election, Mr. López Obrador, a leftist former Mexico City mayor, is locked in a dead heat with Felipe Calderón, the conservative candidate from President Vicente Fox's National Action Party. After seesawing for weeks, all opinion polls now suggest the race is too close to call.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/world/americas/17amlo.html

Friday, June 16, 2006 · Last updated 12:42 p.m. PT

Critics: Dirty tricks taint Mexico vote

By LISA J. ADAMS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

MEXICO CITY -- Felicia Gonzalez says she was undecided in the last presidential election until campaign workers knocked on her door and offered her nearly $200 in cash and a basket full of rice, beans, cooking oil and sugar. That was more than the 35-year-old cleaning woman makes in a month, so suddenly her choice was easy.

"I thought, why not? Who else was going to come along and offer me that much money?" she said.

That's the sort of campaign fraud election officials pledged to eradicate from Mexico's long-corrupt political system. While they have made progress, many say foul play still taints the system weeks before the July 2 presidential election.

Mexico's special prosecutor for electoral crimes, Maria de los Angeles Fromow, said her office has received at least 250 complaints, including the alleged diversion of government funds to campaigns.

President Vicente Fox himself has been widely criticized for intervening in the campaign.
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Mexico_Influencing_The_Vote.html

then I would go to the polls and cast my vote any which way I choose. The poor get screwed by almost everyone, it is a shame this lady may cast her vote for someone who is corrupt enough to buy it.

Obrador is in danger of election fraud.

don't they?

Freeloading on the backs of the majority.

Is that democracy?