Stances Harden Over Mexican Election

[BlueDragon1981]

Stances Harden Over Mexican Election
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/w...aec7b89705ed64&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. and GINGER THOMPSON
Published: July 9, 2006

MEXICO CITY, July 8 — While the announced winner of last Sunday's presidential election, Felipe Calderón, kept a low profile on Saturday, his leftist rival led a rally of at least 150,000 people, charged the polling had been marred by fraud and suggested there would be civil unrest without a vote-by-vote recount.

"If there is not democracy, there will be instability," said the rival, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, at a news conference just hours before he addressed his angry and defiant supporters in Mexico City's central plaza.

At 5:50 p.m., he took the stage in the Zócalo, the historic central square in front of the National Palace, to fire a broadside at what he described as an oligarchy of top-level politicians and businessmen.

"We are aware we are confronting a powerful group, economically and politically, that are accustomed to winning at all costs, without moral scruples," he told the crowd. He maintained that this group had "conspired against democracy" and that "they are the ones who now want to put a servant in the presidency."

Mr. López Obrador called on his supporters to march Wednesday from every electoral district in the country to the capital, an echo of his 1994 march from Tabasco to the capital to protest his defeat in the governor's race.

"Let it be clear, " he said. "This is a peaceful movement, and we will never fall for the provocations of our adversaries."

Mr. Calderón, of the conservative National Action Party, effectively ceded the day's spotlight to Mr. López Obrador. After he was announced the victor on Thursday by a narrow margin of 243,000 votes, he had begun to give hints about how he would approach issues like trade, globalization and dealings with the United States on immigration. And on Friday he kept a whirlwind schedule of meetings and appearances.

But on Saturday, Mr. Calderón, the former energy minister, stayed out of the public eye.

Mr. López Obrador, the former Mexico City mayor and firebrand leader of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, spent the day laying out his arguments for a recount and revving up his followers.

He said his opponent's supporters had resorted to fraud and vote-buying in northern states where the conservative party is dominant, like Jalisco and Guanajuato. He also said he had been the victim of a smear campaign on television and radio that far exceeded campaign spending limits.

He said that the Federal Electoral Institute should have recounted Sunday's ballots during the official tally. He pointed out that mistakes favoring Mr. Calderón were found in about 2,600 cases where officials did recount votes, when tally sheets were missing or contained errors.

He said he would present a case for recounting the votes to the Federal Electoral Tribunal on Sunday, and that he would also challenge the validity of the election before the Supreme Court, arguing that President Vicente Fox had interfered with it.

Later, he took his case to the people. Tens of thousands of angry and defiant people wearing his party's yellow colors and carrying banners and flags gathered in the Zócalo throughout the afternoon. They were young and old, unemployed and professional, dark-skinned and light-skinned, and they had traveled from places as far as the states of Michoacán and Tabasco.

Mr. López Obrador spoke for about 40 minutes, calling his adversaries traitors to democracy. The crowd chanted, "You are not alone."

Gloria Aceves, 63, had been waiting next to the stage since 9 a.m. Her husband died trying to cross the Rio Grande into the United States, she said, and she depends on a monthly grant from the city established by Mr. López Obrador, who championed the poor in his campaign. "If I have to die here," she said, "here I will die supporting him."

At his Saturday news conference, Mr. López Obrador declined to answer several times when asked what he would do if the courts refused a recount, saying he had faith the judges would order one. "Peace is the fruit of justice," he said.

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What an election that is contrevorsial..... no.... that can't happen.