Mexico Recount Denied

A Mexican election tribunal has denied presidential candidate Manuel Lopéz Obrador a full recount of votes cast in last month’s election. The ruling will surely disappoint the thousands of Obrador supporters who have been protesting in Mexico City for weeks. Mexico’s election commission declared a narrow victory for Felipe Calderón, who won by only 243,000 votes. Obrador has said he does not accept the findings of the tribunal.

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MEXICO CITY, Aug. 5 ? A seven-member electoral tribunal on Saturday unanimously rejected a demand from the leftist candidate for president for a complete recount of votes, setting the stage for more protests by thousands of his supporters who have camped out in the capital, claiming the election last month was fraudulent.

Later in the day, the candidate, Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who champions the cause of the poor, refused to accept the ruling. At a raucous rally in the Zócalo, the city?s historic central square, he called on his followers to continue a campaign of civil disobedience in support of a full recount. He gave no hint of what the next move in that campaign would be.

?We demand that the magistrates rectify their decision because they have the ability and the moral responsibility to do it,? he said, as a crowd of several thousand chanted ?fraud, fraud.?

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