Mexico City – Defeated presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told thousands of supporters Sunday he would step up his civil-disobedience campaign, starting with a mass rally today in front of the election tribunal that rejected his demand for a national recount.
“Do you all agree that we take this assembly to the tribunal?” Lopez Obrador asked the protesters who have camped for a week on the capital’s central square and along nearly 5 miles of Paseo de la Reforma, the main boulevard.
“There, we’ll ask the tribunal judges to rectify their decision and to accept opening up all the ballot boxes and counting all the votes,” he said to cheers. “It’s for the well-being of the nation and of all Mexicans.”
Lopez Obrador alleges that Mexico’s July 2 presidential election was tainted by fraud and errors. He has demanded a recount of all 41 million votes cast after losing by less than 1 percentage point, or about 244,000 votes. But Saturday, the seven-judge panel agreed to order only a partial recount – 9 percent of polling stations in 26 states – because of apparent arithmetic mistakes or other irregularities. That will mean a recount of several million votes by next week.
The tribunal has until Sept. 6 to declare a president-elect or annul the vote. The election was won by National Action Party candidate Felipe Calderon, who belongs to the same party as President Vicente Fox.
