Mexico City – Pressing a campaign of “civil resistance” in demand of a recount of ballots, more than a hundred supporters of the leftist presidential contender blocked the entrance to the Mexican Stock Exchange here Monday.
The action by backers of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador prevented many traders and employees of the exchange from entering the building on Reforma Avenue downtown, but did not significantly affect trading, an exchange spokesman told EFE.
He noted that transactions are effected via computer, and that traders do not have to be physically present at the exchange to do business.
The leftist coalition backing Lopez Obrador says fraud was committed in the July 2 elections.
The official vote tally gave a narrow victory – by less than six-tenths of a percentage point – to conservative candidate Felipe Calderon.
Lopez Obrador has led two huge protest demonstrations in the Zocalo square in Mexico City and is pressing a campaign of “civil resistance.” He says social peace in the country depends on whether the magistrates of the federal electoral tribunal accede to his demand for a vote-by-vote recount of the ballots cast early this month.
The electoral court has until Aug. 31 to rule on the legal challenges to the result. By Sept. 6 it must announce the president-elect, who will take office in December for a six-year term and succeed Vicente Fox, of the same conservative PAN party as Calderon.
