Spiegel: Mexico Faces Deadlock as Presidential Candidates both Declare Victory
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July 3, 2006, Spiegel, Election Chaos, Mexico Faces Deadlock as Presidential Candidates both Declare Victory
Mexican voters faced political uncertainty on Monday as the two leading candidates for president declared victory in a cliffhanger election. Final results aren't expected for days.
[photo AFP, Mexico's presidential candidate Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN) has a slim lead.]
Following in the tradition of recently deadlocked elections in Italy, Germany and the United States, Mexico was left in political limbo on Monday with two candidates claiming the right to become the country's next president. Roughly one percentage point separated conservative Felipe Calderon and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with almost 92 percent of all votes tallied.
Preliminary results from Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute had Calderon taking 36.66 percent of the vote and Lopez Obrador close behind with 35.57 percent, but official results might not be released until Wednesday. In the meantime, however, both candidates have claimed victory.
"We have no doubt that we have won the presidential election," Calderon told his supporters according to the Associated Press.
But Lopez Obrador raised the specter of voter fraud when addressing thousand of supporters in Mexico City's Zocalo plaza. "We're going to defend our triumph. We aren't going to let them try to make our results disappear," said Lopez Obrador after the crowd had chanted "Fraud! Fraud!" upon hearing the news the race was too close to call.
Many members of Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) believe leftist Cuauhtemoc Cardenas was robbed of his presidential victory back in 1988. Lopez Obrador made clear he would not allow the same to happen to him. "This is no longer the era of fraud, because the people will not accept it. It is no longer '88," Lopez Obrador said Sunday night.
Regardless of the final outcome, the hotly contested election could spell a period of political polarization in Mexico, which for years was plagued by rigged elections by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Current President Vicente Fox, who is limited to one six-year term, was the first candidate to break the PRI's 71-year grip on the presidency in 2000. He called for patience until official results became available.
"It is the responsibility of all of the political actors to follow the law and respect the time the institute needs to announce the election results," Fox said, who belongs to Calderon's National Action Party (PAN).
The election has split Mexico into two bitterly divided camps, with Calderon being painted as the candidate of the rich and those with vested interests and Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party as a radical leftist who will wreck the economy to placate the poor.
PAN looked set to take most seats in both houses of Mexico's congress, but not enough to have a majority. The election's biggest loser was the PRI, which fell into third place in the congress for the first time ever.
Mexican voters faced political uncertainty on Monday as the two leading candidates for president declared victory in a cliffhanger election. Final results aren't expected for days.
[photo AFP, Mexico's presidential candidate Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN) has a slim lead.]
Following in the tradition of recently deadlocked elections in Italy, Germany and the United States, Mexico was left in political limbo on Monday with two candidates claiming the right to become the country's next president. Roughly one percentage point separated conservative Felipe Calderon and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with almost 92 percent of all votes tallied.
Preliminary results from Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute had Calderon taking 36.66 percent of the vote and Lopez Obrador close behind with 35.57 percent, but official results might not be released until Wednesday. In the meantime, however, both candidates have claimed victory.
"We have no doubt that we have won the presidential election," Calderon told his supporters according to the Associated Press.
But Lopez Obrador raised the specter of voter fraud when addressing thousand of supporters in Mexico City's Zocalo plaza. "We're going to defend our triumph. We aren't going to let them try to make our results disappear," said Lopez Obrador after the crowd had chanted "Fraud! Fraud!" upon hearing the news the race was too close to call.
Many members of Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) believe leftist Cuauhtemoc Cardenas was robbed of his presidential victory back in 1988. Lopez Obrador made clear he would not allow the same to happen to him. "This is no longer the era of fraud, because the people will not accept it. It is no longer '88," Lopez Obrador said Sunday night.
Regardless of the final outcome, the hotly contested election could spell a period of political polarization in Mexico, which for years was plagued by rigged elections by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Current President Vicente Fox, who is limited to one six-year term, was the first candidate to break the PRI's 71-year grip on the presidency in 2000. He called for patience until official results became available.
"It is the responsibility of all of the political actors to follow the law and respect the time the institute needs to announce the election results," Fox said, who belongs to Calderon's National Action Party (PAN).
The election has split Mexico into two bitterly divided camps, with Calderon being painted as the candidate of the rich and those with vested interests and Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party as a radical leftist who will wreck the economy to placate the poor.
PAN looked set to take most seats in both houses of Mexico's congress, but not enough to have a majority. The election's biggest loser was the PRI, which fell into third place in the congress for the first time ever.
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