As expected, the Federal Electoral Tribunal declared Calderon the winner of the Mexican presidential election.
Lopez Obrador said that he won't accept the result, and he has millions of supporters behind him. The US press hasn't been covering this very much, but protestors had congress locked down, and Vicente Fox had to give up on his final state of the union speech after Obrador's supporters in Congress kept Fox from coming in to deliver the speech.
Summing up, this is ugly, and Lopez Obrador has the potential to cause significant havoc to what - a short time ago - looked like a very promising democratization.
The court rejected Lopez Obrador's "dirty campaign" allegations but said Fox put the election at risk with his comments on the campaign.
Lopez Obrador had argued that an ad campaign comparing him to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez illegally affected the elections. But the court said that while the ads had a strong impact, it was not enough to change the result. It also pointed out that Lopez Obrador used attack ads against Calderon.
The court said there was "no logical connection" to Lopez Obrador's claim that television ads by pro-Calderon businesses had subliminal messages in favor of Calderon. It also rejected claims that the popular soap opera "La Fea Mas Bella," or "The Prettiest Ugly Girl," indirectly supported Calderon, and said there was no evidence electoral authorities were biased against the leftist.
The court's president, Leonel Castillo, called on Mexicans to unite and heal the deep divisions the election revealed.
"I hope we conclude this electoral process leaving confrontation behind," he said.
Neither candidate was at the session. Lopez Obrador ate breakfast with lawmakers from his Democratic Revolution Party, then arrived at his protest tent in Mexico City's Zocalo plaza, where he has been sleeping for nearly two months.
What Mexico needs is strong democratic institutions. This electoral struggle has managed to politicize - and potentially weaken - the presidency, the courts, and the congress.
Posted by binky at September 5, 2006 05:44 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Latin America