Lopez Obrador's aides also allege interference by Fox-could lead to REVOTE

[kpete]

Leftist to Seek Recount in Mexican Election
Lopez Obrador's aides also allege interference by Fox. That could lead to a demand for a revote.
By Héctor Tobar and Richard Boudreaux, Times Staff Writers
July 8, 2006


MEXICO CITY — Top aides to leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called Friday for a recount of nearly half the votes cast in Sunday's presidential election and edged close to demanding that the entire vote be nullified.

The statements by the Lopez Obrador camp revealed a two-part strategy to deny a victory to conservative Felipe Calderon, who on Thursday was proclaimed the winner by a margin of little more than half a percentage point.

ADVERTISEMENTBy insisting on a recount of about 18 million of the 41 million votes cast, aides said, Lopez Obrador hopes to overcome Calderon's official 244,000-vote margin. The leftist has been insisting since Monday that there were widespread irregularities in the tally.

Simultaneously, Lopez Obrador's aides allege that President Vicente Fox improperly influenced the vote — an accusation that could provide grounds for asking Mexico's electoral tribunal to nullify the election and order a new one.

more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexelect8jul08,0,3265742.story

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Did I call it or waht, this ain't gonna be pretty

been folling this in the Mexcian Press, the Euro Observers are also asking for a recount, vote by vote

[Adelante]

5. nad, do you have a link for the Euro observers?

According to the BBC, that wouldn't be correct.

EU says disputed Mexico vote fair

Election monitors from the European Union say they found no irregularities in last Sunday's hotly disputed presidential election.

The EU said its 80 monitors nationwide did not witness any wrongdoing.

-snip

The European Union monitoring team said its monitors "did not report any incidents or irregularities that could have affected the transparency of the counting process and that could have impacted the results".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5160188.stm

I think a vote by vote recount is called for because of the closeness of the vote, in any case, and I think the court will order it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Accordign to La Jornada not quite

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/07/08/007n2pol.php

been following this in the Mexican Media

El también representante del derechista Partido Popular de España en el Parlamento Europeo informó que el consejero presidente del Instituto Federal Electoral, Luis Carlos Ugalde, le confirmó que el órgano comicial realizará una investigación exhaustiva de las inconsistencias de los resultados preliminares (PREP) y una posible auditoría externa, "lo que reforzará la confiabilidad en la institución y la transparencia del proceso".

[Adelante]

11. Okay, so they found no irregularities; however...

Recognizing AMLO's right to call for a vote by vote count, it would be good to do for the sake of confidence in the electoral process and the IFE. Is that right? I guess there's no conflict there.

[mom cat]

15. I guess that ballots in the city dump are no longer considered

"irregular:!

[Adelante]

16. I think everybody knows there was evil-doing

Whether the evil-doing influenced the end result is something else. Everybody knows the ballots were found in the dumps. It is the election court's job to determine how they got there and decide if it warrants a recount or a new election. Obviously, the observers did not see who dumped them, but they can count and conclude the absence of those votes didn't affect the result. I actually expect the full report will discuss this, but that hasn't been released yet. In any case, nobody, including the observers, gets to investigate or adjudicate or decide or review before the election court makes its determination. Leaping ahead of the process is in nobody's best interest and weakens Mexico's election protection efforts, which have been far more admirable than anything in the US. What's important is the ballot by ballot recount to settle any and all question, but only the election court can issue that finding based either on proven corruption or merely on the closeness of the vote. Once they finish up, their work can be evaluated by international monitors, but we're not there yet.

[stepnw1f]

7. Who Exactly is This European Union monitoring team?

Are they right wing leaning or what?

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Members come from parties from diferent

places and parties... spanning the whole political spectrum

[stepnw1f]

9. So Why Then are They Siding

with a "Fair Election"? Was it, or was it not, and how do they feel about the other reports of mischief from Mexico itself?

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. They are still asking for a recount

that is what I am getting from the Mexican Media

[Ghost Dog]

14. Yes there do appear to have been some more recent statements

...But I gather that EU Mission didn't have a lot if anything to do with the counting process, they were just observing some polling stations.

Here's their preliminary report (in Spanish) - the final detailed report's pending: http://www.eueommexico.org/preliminary.html

"La jornada electoral se desarrollo satisfactoriamente, los electores acudieron a las urnas en número significativo y ejercieron en términos generales su derecho al voto libremente, sin intimidaciones y de manera tranquila y ordenada, culminando un proceso que fue seguido con gran interés por la población.

"No obstante, algunos aspectos significativos del proceso electoral fueron observados o señalados a la atención de la Misión: la coincidencia de horarios para la instalación de casillas y el inicio de la votación a la misma hora (08:00 horas) lo que provocó algunos retrasos y colas en muchas casillas básicas y especiales; aunque el secreto del voto se respetó en casi todas las casillas visitadas, en algunas no se respetó la privacidad; la Misión registró además algunos otros problemas en las casillas como el tamaño pequeño de las urnas y la ausencia de sellos de seguridad para asegurar su inviolabilidad.

"Un aspecto positivo fue la presencia en grande parte de las casillas visitadas de representantes de los principales partidos políticos, así como observadores en un 30 por ciento de ellas. La Misión no recibió denuncias de parte de ciudadanos, partidos políticos u observadores, aunque muchos electores y representantes de partidos se quejaron sobre el retraso en la votación.

"En todo caso, los aspectos referidos y otros que serán desarrollados en el informe final no invalidan la apreciación positiva en general del proceso electoral."

[Adelante]

12. They found it to be a fair election

It's up to AMLO to prove it was not a fair election. That's the next step. If he does prove it, the court will issue an order for a vote by vote count or they may do so based on the close numbers, evidence of mischief or not. The EU observers seem to be saying, even though they found a fair election, it should be proven. They're right.

[Faygo Kid]

2. Karl Rove and Diebold would never allow a revote here.

[buff2]

3. Is that twistmouth Dickhead Cheney with Rummy?

:spray: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[annabanana]

4. yup. . . plotting America's downfall

They started well before this picture was taken

[Faygo Kid]

13. How very much better the world would be if their Dads were just too tired

We would have a much better world without these two warmongers. They are horrific, and I trust History will hold them in contempt. Hey, Dick and Rummy, Ken Lay just died. You want that legacy? Yours is worse.