MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s defeated leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led yesterday to denounce the July 1 presidential election result, which he claims was bought by his opponent.
Lopez Obrador called on “supporters of democracy” to gather at the Zocalo, Mexico City’s historic main square, after the electoral tribunal dismissed last month his bid to overturn the victory of Enrique Pena Nieto.
Pena Nieto, whose Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century, won 38.2 percent of the vote compared to 31.6 percent for the former Mexico City mayor — a margin of three million votes.
Lopez Obrador claims that the PRI, which governed Mexico with an iron grip from 1929 to 2000, bought five million votes and violated campaign spending rules in order to secure Pena Nieto’s victory.
“(Peaceful) civil disobedience is an honorable duty when it is aimed against thieves who steal the hope and happiness of the people,” he said on Aug. 31 after the tribunal confirmed Pena Nieto’s victory.
Pena Nieto, who begins his six-year term on Dec. 1, has denied the allegations and called for national unity following the court’s decision.
Lopez Obrador led mass protests that paralyzed Mexico City in 2006 after he lost that year’s election to Felipe Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, by less than one percentage point.
But he was unable to change the outcome.
Although hundreds of thousands of people protested at the Zocalo six years ago, analysts say Lopez Obrador may not be able to tap into such widespread anger this time around.
Lopez Obrador “is weaker” this time because he lost by a wide margin and the electoral court ruled that he failed to prove electoral fraud, said Jose Antonio Crespo, historian at the Center of Economic Studies.
But he will continue to be a “legitimate leader” because he has plenty of followers who can make him a contender again in the 2018 elections, Crespo said.
This may cause Mexico’s left to fracture as more moderate members of the movement, such as current Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, could throw their hat in the ring in six years too.
Mexican leftist leads rally against election result
