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Election authorities on Wednesday began a court ordered partial recount of the July 2 presidential vote that revealed minor errors during the first day´s ballot reviews. Officials from the Federal Electoral Institute supervised by 192 federal judges began reviewing ballots from 9 percent of more than 130,000 polling places. The recount is part of the process for the court to settle challenges brought by second-place candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who claims fraud. The court-ordered recount will probably narrow Calderón´s margin of victory, said Chappell Lawson, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Such an outcome could...

So states César Nava, Adjutant Secretary General of the white and blue1, that this self-proclamation is in the style of Antonio López de Santa Ana. The National Action Party (PAN) assured today that the statement of the presidential candidate of the For the Good of All coalition, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, given to the Univision channel:2 "Yes, I am the President of Mexico. I am the President of Mexico by the will of the majority," is "one more occurence of a messianic impudence." César Nava Vázquez, Adjutant Secretary General of the PAN Party, said that this self-proclamation is "in the...

Mexico City, Jul 26 (EFE).- Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told the biggest Spanish-language television network in the United States that he is president of Mexico "by the will of the majority," though election authorities have yet to rule on his challenge of results that gave the victory to his conservative opponent. Officials results showed Felipe Calderon with an advantage of 0.58 percent over Lopez Obrador in the July 2 balloting, but the leftist is demanding a vote-by-vote recount. Mexico's electoral tribunal has until Sept. 6 to declare who will be sworn-in Dec. 1 to succeed conservative incumbent Vicente Fox...

Lopez Obrador Rouses Supporters The runner-up in Mexico's presidential election hopes Sunday's rally will highlight the public's backing of his demand for a recount. By Sam Enriquez Times Staff Writer July 28, 2006 MEXICO CITY — This week, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has declared himself president, threatened to close roads and airports with mass demonstrations, and accused the nation's electoral board of ignoring the law. And the week's not over yet. Sound bites from the 52-year-old leftist and former mayor have kept Mexico's presidential election at the top of the news in advance of a rally Sunday that his supporters...

The Organic Intellectuals1 incorporate themselves in the masses who blindly obey slogans without measuring the consequences. They are losing the election and reason. The struggle for power has characteristics which on occasion result in the loss of reason and in an abstraction of reality typical of totalitarian thought. Defeat in an enormously competitive electoral process poses a challenge to the institutions of democracy, but also to the temper and responsibility of those politicians who, feeling themselves sure winners, come to be obligated to confront an adverse reality. The candidacy of Lopez Obrador was under construction as far back as...

Mexican judges face tough test in disputed presidential race By JULIE WATSONTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS MEXICO CITY  -  The future of Mexico’s young democracy lies in the hands of seven judges who have the final word on a disputed presidential election that has strained class divisions and threatened the nation’s stability, with one candidate calling for millions to protest.The magistrates  -  including Mexico’s first female district judge and a respected author on ethics and democracy  -  have shown toughness and independence in thousands of electoral disputes, ruling against all three major parties.But they have never faced a challenge like this. Mexicans...

With more than a million people filling Mexico City´s historic center for the second time in two weeks, the nation´s self-proclaimed pro-democracy movement re-asserted itself Sunday as Andrés Manuel López Obrador called for permanent demonstrations along the capital´s main boulevard and citizens from across the country shouted support for a full recount of the contested July 2 presidential balloting. "I´m here because I believe in dignity," said Lucía Arias, a social worker from the capital´s Tláhuac precinct who brought her two pre-teen sons to participate in the march. "Everybody I work with feels the same way, and all we´re asking...

MEXICO CITY – Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador led his supporters into Mexico City's streets yesterday and launched an occupation of the nation's capital that he vowed to continue until federal electoral officials accept his demand for a recount in the presidential election. Casting the protest as a defense of Mexico's fragile democracy, López Obrador outlined a detailed plan to close nearly two dozen main thoroughfares by setting up encampments in the heart of Mexico City's business district. He also promised to stay with supporters “day and night” at a permanent camp he asked them to set up in the...

The left-wing candidate in Mexico's disputed election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and his backers are occupying the capital's main square and avenues. Mr Lopez Obrador on Sunday called on his adherents to paralyse Mexico City until every vote was recounted. Official results from the 2 July vote gave victory to the conservative Felipe Calderon by half a percentage point. Mr Lopez Obrador alleges vote counts were rigged - but EU monitors have said they found no irregularities. The country's electoral court has until the end of August to rule on a recount.

Mexico City residents arose Monday morning to an eerily altered downtown landscape, with some of the usual traffic patterns disrupted by the conversion of the historic Paseo de la Reforma from a heavily used transit thoroughfare to a five-mile-long scenic pedestrian mall better suited to casual strolls, cycling, makeshift soccer games and inline skating. They also woke up to a sharply intensified political atmosphere. Presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador´s decision to literally set up camp along the Reforma/Juárez/Madero continuation from west of the National Auditorium to the Zócalo at once emboldened supporters of his demand for a recount of...

Lopez Obrador and his supporters say they're staying until judges order a full recount MEXICO CITY - Militants loyal to leftist presidential contender Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador threw up tents and blockaded streets in the center of Mexico's capital Monday, snarling traffic, disrupting business and forcing workers to walk many blocks, even miles, to their jobs. Newspapers and the airwaves filled with condemnation from officials and citizens alike. But Lopez Obrador and his followers say they're staying for as long as it takes to convince a tribunal of seven election judges to order a full recount of the July 2...

Latin America: Losing an election is tough. But when a losing politician forces the biggest city in the hemisphere to shut down because he won't accept defeat, as is happening in Mexico, it's warfare against democracy. The scruffy supporters of failed leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are not only turning Mexico City into a filthy tent encampment but also blockading Mexico's stock exchange. They loathe capitalism, of course. But their sweet-talk claim to the media is that they're entitled to a ballot-by-ballot recount of all 42 million votes cast in Mexico's July 2 election. Their demand is illegal...

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) -- Mexico ramped up security at its international airport, power plants and oil refineries on Friday, as leftists challenging a tight presidential election result threatened to intensify crippling protests.

MATAMOROS, Mexico — Presidential runner-up Andrés Manuel López Obrador's call for civil disobedience reached the border Friday in a string of protests at international bridges in Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and here. In Matamoros, a group of about 100 blocked a city street that leads to the Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates and into Brownsville. "We're here because we are sure that López Obrador won," Rommel Delgado, a 23-year-old teacher, said over the horns of miffed truckers and drivers. Civil unrest here and in other parts of the country, most notably Mexico City, is rooted in the historically close results...

MEXICO CITY, Mexico -- Mexico's top electoral court on Saturday rejected a ballot-by-ballot recount in the disputed presidential election, angering supporters of leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who have kept the nation in turmoil for weeks. In Mexico's central plaza, thousands of protesters watched the court session on a huge screen, chanting "Vote by vote!" and drowning out the judges' statements. Representatives of Lopez Obrador walked out of the session in protest. Tens of thousands of Lopez Obrador's supporters have camped out in the capital's center for a week, disrupting business and traffic to press their case that their...

TEPJF rules against vote by vote recount The Electoral Tribunal presented the legal-electoral obstacles that the For the Good of All coalition1 did not surpass to attempt a precinct by precinct, vote by vote recount. The Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF) rejected this morning the aspiration of the For the Good of All coalition that they carry out a recount of all the votes of all the precincts set up for the presidential election of this past July 2. To the hope of leaving it to judge this aspect of the vote, the Secretary...

Calderon wins Mexican presidential race By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes agoMEXICO CITY - The ruling party's Felipe Calderon won the official count in Mexico's disputed presidential race Thursday, a come-from-behind victory for the stiff technocrat. But his leftist rival refused to concede and said he'd fight the results in court.Calderon, a conservative who preached free-market values and financial stability during the campaign, was already reaching out to other parties to build a "unity government". His opponent, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, blamed fraud for his narrow loss in the vote count and called on his supporters to fill...

In Mexico City, supporters of left-leaning candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador have taken over streets to press election officials for a recount in the disputed July 2 presidential election. Tourism officials say things could get even worse. "If this goes on for a week or 10 days more, some hotels are going to be in a desperate situation," said Carlos Mackinlay, director of Mexico City tourism promotion. Double-decker buses no longer tour the tree-lined Reforma, which connects the city´s Chapultepec Park to the Historic Center but is now closed to traffic. Museums, restaurants and hotels stand largely empty. Tourists who...

Lopez Obrador supporters' protest camps have blocked Mexico City's main Reforma Avenue and Zocalo square, snarling traffic for a week in the cultural and financial heart of the capital. Braving near-nightly rainstorms and even flooding at the height of Mexico's monsoon, the protesters have refused to leave despite pleas from President Vicente Fox. "We are going to continue our peaceful civil resistance movement," Lopez Obrador said Saturday, adding that the tribunal's judges were "legally weak." He then spent his seventh straight night in a tent in the Zocalo, rising early Sunday and heading to his apartment to shower. His followers...

AMLO is moving informative assembly1 to the TEPJF The candidate of the For the Good of All coalition2 called on his sympathizers to come together tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. at the offices of the Electoral Tribunal to carry out an assembly. The candidate of the For the Good of All coalition, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, announced that tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. the coalition will carry out an informative assembly in front of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation. During his fourth informative assembly in the Zocalo capital plaza, Lopez Obrador insisted on the necessity of...