PAN: AMLO Intends to Deceive with Presumed Stuffing of Ballot Box (Translation)

eluniversal.com.mx ^ | July 11, 2006 | eluniversal.com.mx ( translated by self )

[StJacques]

PAN spokesman César Nava alleged that the presidential candidate of the For the Good of All coalition never said that the representative of his party at that precinct¹ in Salamanca² signed the vote tabulation report³ for the precinct without presenting any protest.

César Nava Vázquez, spokesman for the National Action Party (PAN), said that the video about a presumed stuffing of a ballot box in Salamanca, which the presidential candidate of the For the Good of All coalition, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, presented yesterday represents "a coarse intent to deceive people."

Nava indicated that López Obrador never said that the representative of his party installed in that precinct in Salamanca, Guanajuato, [and who] was present, took the video and signed the corresponding vote tabulation report for the precinct without presenting any protest "because there was no irregularity."

The PAN spokesman indicated that "what happened in reality, as happens so many times, is that some people got it wrong. We remember that in Guanajuato there were local elections and they deposited ballots for the election of deputies⁴ in another ballot box. It is something that is an error which happens with a high frequency. The law anticipates that in such cases this error can be corrected so that each ballot can be counted in its corresponding box," he said in an interview with Monitor MVS⁵.

---------------------------------------------------- Translator's notes:

¹I am translating the noun casilla, which refers to the crated and sealed ballots from a local polling station whose count is approved by certified poll commissioners from each of the major parties, as "precinct," as this would be its approximate corresponding term in American electoral practice.

²Refers to the town of Salamanca in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, located approximately 140 miles northwest of Mexico City or about 30 miles south of the city of Guanajuato.

³The "vote tabulation report" refers to the Acta de Casilla, the official document containing the tabulated votes for each precinct which all certified poll commissioners on site representing the major parties and monitoring the counting of votes are required to sign, unless they disagree with the numbers.

⁴Mexican voters also elected "Deputies" or representatives to the lower house of the Mexican Congress, known as the Camara de Diputados or "Chamber of Deputies."

⁵Radio Monitor MVS is a Mexican radio news network.

[StJacques]

I first saw the report of Lopez Obrador's claim that he had "video evidence" of vote fraud on ABC News this morning. The report said that Lopez Obrador had shown a video "with evidence he says proves vote fraud" in the Mexican elections. I am not able to bring up the ABC News site to find an appropriate article to reference for you, but I'll give you two other links to American news sites carrying the story:

Chicago Tribune:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0607110193jul11,1,605874.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

MSNBC:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13807778/

Neither of these two articles contains the PAN response, both say that PAN is not responding, which possibly could be written off to the timing of the posting.

On a side note, the MSNBC article does corroborate my estimate of the attendance at the Sunday demonstration in Mexico City for AMLO. I posted on another thread that I did not believe the 280,000 figure given by a Mexico City official and MSNBC reports "more than 100,000."

There is something else in the MSNBC article that I did not find on the Mexican web sites. According to MSNBC Lopez Obrador "also said only that he would wait to see the court ruling on his lawsuit before deciding if he would accept it." This statement raises very ominous portents for the future in my opinion. But at the very least it amounts to nothing less than pure intimidation of the Mexican electoral tribunal.

[nopardons]

bttt

[StJacques]

A Mexican post-election ping for you all.

The mainstream media just hasn't been reporting this story in full as I have seen it so far. I'm waiting to see the evening news in a few minutes to determine if they do any better. My guess is that they'll drop the story since their earlier report has now been qualified by the PAN statement.

Anyone wishing to track the other translated articles I have posted on the Mexican election may locate them by doing a keyword search using the unique keyword -- STJTRANSLATION

[BunnySlippers]

Viva Calderon!

[Seruzawa]

the For the Good of All coalition

A breathtakingly Orwellian name for a political entity. The amount of evil hidden behind such a name is mindboggling. Only the most lunatic fringe of self-motivated nacissists could come up with such a thing. I'm sure that they would be happy to send all their opposition to re-education camps.

After all, anyone who opposes them must be working for "the Harm of All" right?

[StJacques]

". . . The amount of evil hidden behind such a name is mindboggling. Only the most lunatic fringe of self-motivated nacissists could come up with such a thing. I'm sure that they would be happy to send all their opposition to re-education camps. . . ."

Evidently you know them exactly for who they are Seruzawa. This looks like a good time to reintroduce the pic of supporting Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador outside of the Federal Electoral Institute in Mexico City last Wednesday:





Is that who you thought they were Seruzawa?

[StJacques]

Ok everyone, this is a very recent post to the El Universal web site. Lopez Obrador has been forced to explain an apparent rejection of his charge of ballot stuffing in the Salamanca, Guanajuato precinct by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) by suggesting -- he won't say it outright -- that the PRD precinct representative who took the video and yet still signed the official document reporting the vote count as accurate was bought.

Here is the link to the web article (it's in Spanish):

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/361687.html

And here is a very quick translation of its contents:

----------------------------------------------------------

AMLO Denounces Buying of Precinct Representatives

PRD leader assures that in isolated cases money was offered to his delegates

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was declared by the For the Good of All coalition for the presidency of the Republic, announced that his own precinct representatives were bought.

"There was a lot of money in the way, I don't want to say that was the case, but we have cases where they arrived to offer money to our representatives," he admitted, without wanting to compromise his representative to precinct 2227 in Salamanca, Guanajuato.

Yesterday, López Obrador assured everyone that the "filling" or ballot stuffing occurred in that Guanajuatan precinct to the advantage of the PAN candidate Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, which was denied by the IFE. Today, in a press conference, the PRD leader added that "we still do not have (proof), but all that is going to come out; if they bought votes, well how can they not buy [party] representatives? Fortunately I do not believe that this was done generally, there are isolated cases, because a lot of people do not sell their dignity."

----------------------------------------------------------

The way I read that Lopez Obrador has been embarrassed in front of the media for his accusation yesterday.

I really think this is falling apart for him.

[StJacques]

I meant to ping all of you on the translation of the second article I just posted above but I posted it without addressing it to anyone. Take a look.

[conservative in nyc]

So his guy who taped the video showing alleged ballot stuffing was bought by the Panistas to fraudulently sign the tally sheet?

This doesn't make sense... Not that I would expect that anything coming out of a socialist's mouth would.

[StJacques]

He really is coming unglued conservative in nyc. He also made allegations about ballot irregularities in a precinct in Queretaro, but those were brought up by his representatives in the "official" count -- the 2nd one -- and the casilla was opened and a recount was done in which the PAN candidate did lose some votes and Lopez Obrador picked up a few. The problem was that Lopez Obrador evidently made the charge yesterday as an issue yet to be addressed when it fact it had already been handled and, again, his own PRD commissioners in the precinct signed off on it.

[freedumb2003]

Once again SJ, I thank you for your tireles efforts.

This is interesting and important stuff -- there is more here than most NorteAmericanos know.

[StJacques]

You're welcome freedumb. As soon as I saw the ABC News story this morning I immediately asked myself "ok, now what's the truth?" But I couldn't get any free time to even take a look at it until after lunch. I can now report that ABC News did not even mention it on their evening news broadcast and they are probably going to be a little more cautious in reporting anything that Lopez Obrador says. This morning's report seemed to suggest that Lopez Obrador really had something, but it's "old news" by the evening broadcast. That's the real story here. Lopez Obrador just lost credibility today. You don't burn the MSM. They always believe in payback, no matter how much they support you.

[freedumb2003]

That's the real story here. Lopez Obrador just lost credibility today. You don't burn the MSM. They always believe in payback, no matter how much they support you.

ObraGore should have learned from J F'ing Kerry. The MSM has turned their backs on the Mexican election "scandal."

When even Jimmy Carter stays out of it, it is over.

[StJacques]

"When even Jimmy Carter stays out of it, it is over."

I know a lot of people will chuckle at this comment of yours but I seriously regard it as piercing analysis.

¡Es todo AMLO!

[freedumb2003]

¡Es todo AMLO!

Gracias amigo.