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)
