Mexican judges rule for conservative candidate

[Karlin]

Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon is being given the nod by the courts who are doing a recount of votes in Mexico's presidential election.

His opponent, left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, claims massive fraud. Election results have been overturned in recent years as fraud was proven in the Ukraine, and, if I remember right, also in Venezuela and maybe Bolivia.

A pattern is emerging - at first, the conservative candidates are declared the winner and later the socialist candidate proves fraud. The Ukraine was more like organised crime was declared first, and then 'the orange revolution' proved fraud. Same thing - dominant commercial or corporate backers for candidates that are not getting legitimate votes...
Makes you wonder if corporate backers are rigging elections in America, and thats why they are at war now ; and if Harper got in the same way, being a hard core conservative-corporate hump.

Here is a bit of the article, more at link

Mexico City - Mexico's top electoral court threw out leftists' allegations of massive fraud in last month's presidential election on Monday, handing almost certain victory to conservative candidate Felipe Calderon.

The seven judges voted unanimously to reject most of the legal complaints by left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who said he was robbed of victory in the July 2 vote.

His supporters have paralyzed Mexico City with protests this month and he has vowed to make Mexico ungovernable if the court declares Calderon the winner of the country's most bitterly contested election in modern history.

The initial result showed Calderon, a former energy minister from the ruling National Action Party, won the election by just 0.58 of a percentage point or 244,000 votes,

The judges fell short of formally naming Calderon the winner but they said there were only marginal changes to the original results after recounts and annulments at some of the most fiercely contested polling stations.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082806T.shtml

 

[I think not]

Or Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is a sore loser.

 

[Gonzo]

Felipe Calderón has been accused of borrowing and re-paying 3 million pesos (300,000 US$) from Banobras, a state owned development bank, during his tenure as the bank's director. His detractors claim that the borrowing was illegal, but Calderón and his party deny any wrongdoing, and the case is being investigated.
In the presidential candidate debate of 6 June 2006, López Obrador accused Felipe Calderon of giving large contracts to a software company named Hildebrando, which Calderón's brother-in-law Diego Zavala founded and in which he has minority stock, during Calderón's eight-month tenure as Secretary of Energy. López Obrador also accused the company of tax evasion.
Clearly there is more to Felipe then mere election fraud.

 

[Toro]

RE: Mexican judges rule f

Ole!

Well done, Sr. Calderon.

You are the legitamite winner.

Your opponents will blame their own incompetence on fraud, putting their own ambitions ahead of the good of the nation in trying to overturn a clean election.

 

[Toro]

There were a couple thousand observers from the EU observing the Mexican election. They saw no evidence of fraud.

Mexico leftists take city center in vote protest
Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:42pm ET164

By Greg Brosnan and Chris Aspin

MEXICO CITY, July 31 (Reuters) - Thousands of leftist protesters paralyzed the Mexican capital's business district on Monday to demand a vote recount in a presidential election they say was stolen from their candidate.

Launching a campaign of civil disobedience that raises the stakes in Mexico's political crisis, supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador seized a six-mile (10-km) stretch of the elegant Reforma boulevard and the imposing Zocalo square.

The protest caused chaos and frustration, with huge traffic jams snarling main streets in the congested city.

Lopez Obrador invoked a string of Mexican revolutionary heroes and even India's Mahatma Gandhi to justify his campaign, and warned there would be more disruption to come.

"I apologize ahead of time because we are going to take more actions," he told thousands of cheering supporters.

Hours earlier, office workers running late hurried along Reforma, a wide, tree-lined avenue that is home to the U.S. embassy, luxury hotels and headquarters of major corporations.

"I had to cancel a breakfast where I was going to close a contract for one million pesos (about $92,000). Do you think I'm happy, or that I support these bastards?" said Enrique Salas, an insurance broker.

A bank security guard prevented by the protests from traveling in an armored car walked along Reforma with a sack of money, flanked by two colleagues with shotguns.

European Union observers said they found no evidence of fraud at the election, won narrowly by conservative ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon. But Mexico has a long history of vote cheating and many leftists are deeply suspicious of the electoral system.

The fight has split Mexico just six years after President Vicente Fox swept to power, ending seven decades of rule by an often corrupt party.

Leftists set up tents and huge tarpaulin covers in the middle of Reforma and in the Zocalo square, once the center of the Aztec world and now the heart of modern Mexico.

PESO DROPS

Lopez Obrador apologized to those who do not back his cause but said the campaign to overturn the July 2 election he narrowly lost to Calderon would save Mexico's young democracy.

"Citizens must understand that without democracy in Mexico, if we don't make democracy count, there will be no justice or political stability or peace," Lopez Obrador said.

Mexico's peso dropped 0.82 percent and stocks were also lower on fears the conflict may spin out of control.

Critics said the protests confirmed their fears that Lopez Obrador, a former Indian welfare officer, is a rabble rouser.

"They are hijacking Mexico City, which is an unacceptable act that shows an attitude of complete disregard for democracy and the rights of others," said Cesar Nava, spokesman for Calderon's National Action Party.

Calderon's margin of victory was just 244,000 votes, or less than 0.6 percentage points, and Lopez Obrador says results from more than half of polling stations were tampered with.

"We want everything clarified. So much injustice is not possible. We are sure we won," said Alicia Sanchez, 50, who traveled to the capital from the central city of Tlaxcala.

The battle is now with Mexico's highest electoral court. Lopez Obrador wants it to order a full recount, while Calderon insists there was no fraud.

Local police could break up the protests. But that is unlikely as the city and its police force are run by Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution. He was mayor until he stepped down last year to run for president.

The seven judges have to decide whether to reopen some or all of the ballot boxes by Aug. 31.

Reuters

 

[Toro]

RE: Mexican judges rule f