Mexican left-wing activists to stage protest against vote results

Mexican left-wing activists to stage protest against vote results
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/07/07/249722/mexico-activists-to-protest-vote-results/
Sat Jul 7, 2012 6:47AM GMT

Federal Electoral Institute confirmed the victory of Enrique Pena Nieto, from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, in Mexico’s presidential election on July 6, 2012.

Mexican activists have called for a national “mega march” after a partial vote recount confirmed the victory of Enrique Pena Nieto in the country’s presidential election.

Left-wing activists who are opposed to the winning candidate from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), called on people to stage a nationwide protest on Saturday to voice their opposition to “electoral fraud and the theft and unmeasured abuse of our national resources," a Facebook page dedicated to the march read.

The plan comes after the Federal Electoral Institute on Friday completed the recount of 54.5 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's presidential election, confirming Pena Nieto’s victory.

Pena Nieto won the election with 38.21 percent of the vote, while his leftist rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador received 31.59 percent of the ballots, according to the electoral institute’s report.

Josefina Vazquez Mota, from President Felipe Calderon's ruling National Action Party (PAN), came in third with 25.41 percent.

Lopez Obrador, from the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), said that Pena Nieto was guilty of vote buying, had media coverage biased in his favor and also shattered the spending limits of presidential campaign.

Octavio Aguilar, a senior official at Vazquez Mota campaign, said that PRI spent about $500 million in order to get Pena Nieto elected, breaking the legal spending limits.

"That’s the problem with this democracy -- the one who has the most money buys the election."

He added that the fraud was not only at the ballot box, but also in the large amount of money paid for “everything from gift cards to campaign paraphernalia to years of favorable TV coverage.”

Lopez Obrador also said on Friday that his team had found more data supporting the “hypothesis that they (the PRI) bought the presidential election." He then added that he was preparing a report on how the PRI asked people to vote for their candidate in exchange for gift cards, building material and household appliances.

Pena Nieto, however, rejected the claims, saying the opposition groups have to “present proof” about vote buying.

In 2006, Lopez Obrador supporters blocked the streets of Mexico City with hundreds of thousands of supporters after he lost the election to President Felipe Calderon by less than 1 percentage point.

GJH/MF/SAB/MA