Signs of Vote Fraud in Mexico....Don't Discount a Recount

[Joanne98]

July 8 / 9, 2006
http://www.counterpunch.org/lettieri07082006.html
Signs of Vote Fraud in Mexico
Don't Discount a Recount
By MICHAEL LETTIERI

Late Thursday afternoon, after a lengthy re-tallying process, Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute officially declared the ruling PAN party candidate, Felipe Calderón as the winner of the country's presidential elections. In the words of Luis Carlos Ugalde, head of the electoral institution, "the golden rule of democracy establishes that the winning candidate is the one who obtains the most votes." Yet with a razor-thin margin of 243,934 votes separating Calderón from his left-leaning opponent, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the PRD, it is far from the certain that Ugalde's criteria have been met. Indeed, López Obrador has promised to legally challenge the results, and, if need be, seek a vote-by-vote recount. He has every reason to do so, for Mexico has no reliable history of fair elections.

Given the youthfulness of Mexican democracy and its history of electoral malfeasance, such a proposal is not automatically a matter of sour grapes or poor sportsmanship. Rather, it is a logical and responsible step. The PRD is well within its right to pursue the legal route to a recount, because, despite the boasts of Mexican leaders about their country's democracy, it is still painfully rough around the edges. López Obrador's unwillingness to back down after an election that, however tranquil, has not escaped from the shadow of fraud allegations, could conceivably help strengthen Mexican political culture and institutions. After all, Mexico cannot stand another 1988, when almost without question, Carlos Salinas walked away with a stolen presidency. That election, which saw eventual PRD founder Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas disgracefully robbed of a victory, perhaps began the process of transition that culminated in the PRI's downfall 12 years later.

Moreover, for the good of the country, a recount is absolutely necessary. This election revealed sharp polarizations in Mexican society and seeded a profound bitterness between the two parties. This acrimony will not disappear with the proclamation of the name of the president-elect. The election has been tainted, and the post-ballot period already has been marred by tension, highlighted by the verbal wars between the PAN and PRD representatives at the electoral council assembly, meaning a suitable resolution will not be easily attained. A recount, assuming its genesis is a legitimate and constitutional legal ruling, will advance electoral transparency.

Calderón, who now sees himself as the official winner, ought to be deeply concerned over any challenge to national unity, and a victory in a recount would cement his own legitimacy. If he is to have a successful presidency, Calderón's democratic bona fides must be unimpeachable, and at this juncture, the only way that his status as president can be vouchsafed ­ and the Mexican population convinced of electoral solidity ­ is for a vote-by-vote recount. After a long, dirty campaign that did great damage to the fabric of Mexican political culture, the eventual president will need all the legitimacy the system can still salvage. After all, it was Calderon's insistently repeated allegations that López Obrador was a "danger to Mexico" that gave the panista his tenuous margin of victory, despite the fact that insinuations of Chávez-López Obrador links held not a shred of truth.

More importantly, if Calderón is serious about constructing a government of reconciliation ­ which is uncertain after so much cynicism and hate ­ there is no better way to lay the foundation for such an inclusive program than to support the PRD's request for a recount. Such a gesture of good faith would go a long way towards creating the climate of confidence and compromise that will perhaps help steer Mexico away from the ominous danger that it faces.

Tomorrow, López Obrador will once again fill the Zócalo with a huge crowd to declare his intention to demand a recount. Despite continuing tensions, the long-feared post-election crisis that many had anticipated has so far been avoided. This is the process of democratic consolidation in action, as political actors work to guarantee that the "golden rule" of democracy is indeed alive in Mexico. Recounting the votes should not be an affront to anyone. Rather, such a step is necessary to ensure that the country makes no irreversible move towards crisis and ungovernability.

[MissWaverly]

1. great article, thanks for posting

[Joanne98]

2. Your welcome missy.

[NYC]

3. L.A. Times re Mexican election.

...On Friday, PRD lawyers and activists across Mexico prepared to submit to the electoral tribunal paperwork challenging the count. The deadline to file is Sunday.

PRD officials say they have ample evidence of irregularities. In many instances, they said, vote totals at precincts in Calderon strongholds, such as the central state of Guanajuato, exceeded the number of ballots delivered to those precincts...

...The tribunal has until September to validate the results of the election. Until it does, Calderon's victory has no legal standing.

Even so, Calderon received congratulations from several world leaders. White House officials said President Bush on Friday called both Calderon and Fox to congratulate them on the election result. Bush told Calderon that he looked forward to working with him...

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



Stalin: It's not the vote that counts; it's who counts the votes.

[MissWaverly]

4. vote totals in Calderon strongholds, exceeded no. of ballots

where have we heard this before, and yet Bush has managed to create a picture of election fraud
of the unwashed felon while eliminating thousands of legal, registered voters just to guarantee
the result.

[Joanne98]

5. kick

[Joanne98]

6. Vicente Fox tried to get imprisoned finance minister to finger Obrador

Mexico's Surreal Elections: Anatomy of a Fraud Foretold
by Counterpunch (reposted)
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/07/08/18286349.ph...

Saturday Jul 8th, 2006 8:20 AM
Mexican elections are stolen before, during, and after Election Day. Just look at what happened in the days leading up to the tightest presidential election in the nation's history this past July 2nd.
By law, the parties and their candidates close down their campaigns three days before Election Day. On Wednesday night June 28th as the legal limit hove into sight, a team of crack investigators from the Attorney General's organized crime unit descended on the maximum security lock-up at La Palma in Mexico state where former Mexico City Finance Secretary Guillermo Ponce awaits trial on charges of misuse of public funds ­ much of which he appears to have left on Las Vegas crap tables.

During his nearly six years in office, outgoing president Vicente Fox has often used his attorney general's office against leftist front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to counter his growing popularity, including a failed effort to bar the former Mexico City mayor from the ballot and even imprison him.

Now. in a desperate last minute electoral ploy by Fox's right-wing National Action or PAN party to boost the fortunes of its lagging candidate Felipe Calderon, the agents tried to pressure Ponce into testifying that AMLO and his PRD party had used city revenues to finance his presidential campaign but Ponce proved a stand-up guy and ultimately rebuffed the government men.

The imprisoned finance secretary's refusal to talk greatly disappointed both Televisa and TV Azteca, Mexico's two-headed television monopoly that together have waged an unrelenting dirty war against Lopez Obrador for months and even years. Indeed, TV crews were stationed out in the La Palma parking lot to record Ponce's thwarted confession for primetime news and both networks had reserved time blocks on their evening broadcasting, forcing the anchors to scramble to fill in the gap.

More
http://counterpunch.com/ross07072006.html

[Peace Patriot]

7. This article is much too respectful of the PAN fascists, who operate just

like the Bush fascists: They tell lies and create scapegoats as a pre-written news narrative that will be used, post-election, to "explain" their phony "victory" obtained through election fraud.

For instance, the article states that, "...it was Calderon's insistently repeated allegations that López Obrador was a 'danger to Mexico' that gave the panista his tenuous margin of victory, despite the fact that insinuations of Chávez-López Obrador links held not a shred of truth."

This statement presumes that, a) "his tenuous margin of victory" is real--from all reports, it is not; and b) that the corporate news monopolies' creation of scapegoat Chavez changed votes--where is the evidence for this? and how is it proven that it didn't do the opposite--generate votes for Lopez Obrador? (--the southern states, and the poor and the brown may well admire Chavez, and associate the two with pro-poor policies!)

Clearly, the PAN fascist have taken their cue from Karl Rove--and, who knows?, he may have directly advised them. The methods were very similar. In 2002, for instance, in the state of Georgia--which had just gone all-Diebold (paperless election theft machines, controlled by a Bushite corporation with "trade secret" programming code), the Bushites painted U.S. Senate candidate Max Cleland (a man who lost three limbs as a soldier in the Vietnam War) as a "friend of Osama bin Laden"--a traitor. Pre-election polls showed Cleland with a very large edge in the race (was it 15%? can't recall exactly). Diebold did its work--electronic voting machines with TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY vote tabulation software, owned and controlled by major donors to Bush, with no paper trail at all (no ability to recount the votes). Cleland--with an unbeatable lead--very surprisingly lost. Then the pre-written narratives come into play. Oh, it was "terrorism," people are afraid, gee, what a brilliant guy that Karl Rove is, those ads must have been effective!

It's hogwash! But the war profiteering corporate news monopolies are all set up to peddle this tripe, post-election. In 2004, part of the the pre-written narrative was the "gay marriage" amendments that Bushites placed on several state ballots. There is no evidence that these changed anyone's vote for president, or drew more voters to the polls. In fact, the Democrats blew the Bushites away in new voter registration in 2004, nearly 60/40--and people were NOT flocking to the Democratic Party to vote for Bush! When someone asked Rove or Cheney how they won, they replied that it was their "invisible get-out-the-vote campaign" in the churches. There is NO EVIDENCE of any significant success of that effort--none! The evidence shows the opposite--yet the corporate news monopolies swallow it whole, and have NEVER, AT ANY TIME, POINTED OUT that the new electronic voting machines--installed all over the nation between 2002 and 2004--are controlled by two Bushite corporations, using "trade secret" vote tabulation code!

The Bushites played the "terrorist" card, and issued "terrorist" alert after "terrorist" alert in the pre-election period--it became laughable!--and further engaged in the infamous "swiftboating" smear (questioning John Kerry's military service, when, in truth, Kerry served well and received medals for valor, while Bush was a complete shirker, coward and drunk throughout his military "service" (if it can even be called that)). All these things were used to build a tower of lies about HOW Americans voted, and WHY, for the post-election period, to "explain" a phony "victory" that was achieved by Bushite-controlled "trade secret" software (putting a "thumb on the scales" for Bush all over the country, to manufacture his popular vote, and in the "battleground" states to secure the Electoral Vote), and massive suppression of poor, black and other Democratic votes in Ohio and other states.

I think something very similar just happened in Mexico--and we need to be be very wary of buying into any part of the phony narrative of phony fascist "victories," including here, in this presumption that the corporate news monopolies' scapegoating of Hugo Chavez caused anyone to vote for Calderon or not to vote for Lopez Obrador--especially in this context of 3.3 million "lost" votes, and evidence of massive fraud (ballots found in garbage dumps; electronic vote tally reporting separated from vote COUNTING)!