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MEXICO'S FEDERAL ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL, WHOSE RULINGS CANNOT BE APPEALED, HAS SAID IT WILL DECLARE A WINNER OR ANNUL VOTE EARLY TUESDAY 5 September 2006 Mexico's special court, established to resolve electoral protests in a constitutional process, has announced it will decide what the final official count is for the 2 July balloting, and whether or not the established count is valid. Felipe Calderón currently holds a 240,000 vote advantage in the official tally, and nothing points to the court annulling the election. Official frontrunner, Felipe Calderón, the candidate of Vicente Fox's PAN coalition, insists the election was free of irregularities, clean and legitimate and that the count that currently exists is both complete and definitive. His supporters and political allies insist the system must be allowed to decide the outcome and that any resistance beyond the decision of the electoral tribunal is an affront to the rule of law. Tensions were exacerbated by the partial recount carried out by the federal electoral tribunal, which did not announce the full results of its count of 9% of the votes. Its report did announce the nullification of 237,736 votes, due to "irregularities", but went on to declare that no fraud had occurred. Challenger Andrés Manuel López Obrador plans to hold on 16 September, the day of Mexico's independence, among his supporters in the Plaza del Zócalo, in the center of Mexico City. He has now called on the military to disobey any orders to crack down or to physically harass demonstrators. La Jornada newspaper reports "En la convención nacional democrática se sentarán las bases de una nueva República, se acabará con la simulación e inclusive 'se podrá discutir la posibilidad de convocar a un nuevo Constituyente, con el propósito de que las instituciones efectivamente sean del pueblo y para el pueblo', planteó Andrés Manuel López Obrador." Translated: The national democratic convention will lay the foundations for a new Republic, will end this "simulation" and "could even discuss the possibility of convening a new Constitutional Convention, with the purpose of ensuring that all institutions be of the people and for the people", suggested Andrés Manuel López Obrador. This gives some idea of how serious the situation has become for the different political factions. By way of confusion and popular outrage, and in a climate where the people are accustomed to politicians being untrustworthy and given to corruption, the refusal to count votes has lent legitimacy to the opposition's argument that the process is not itself legitimate. The electoral tribunal will try to resolve this rift by application of the law, but it is not clear whether anything less than a full manual recount will satisfy the calls of the opposition for a legitimizing process. As López Obrador spoke to his supporters and to the press, calling for civil resistance and for order among demonstrators, he also sought to characterize his suspicion about the legitimacy of existing institutions and their ability to serve the law: "What do we do when the institutions charged with dispensing justice only exist to justify the abuses committed by the powerful? Isn't it the case that the Judicial Authority, including the electoral tribunal and the Supreme Court, are at the service of Diego Fernández de Cevallos, who is really the one in charge?" He also accused a narrow group of interests of seizing control of the state's institutions and "holding them hostage", saying the only way to prevent this group from "usurping" the people's democracy is to resist the ascendancy of Felipe Calderón. He went on to cite the Constitution of 1857, and its establishing a basis for a Constitutional Convention in 1917, saying the same institutions still exist and could be used to reform Mexican democracy now. For this reason, López Obrador has said, he plans to make the national democratic convention planned for the 16th of September "a truly historical event". It seems extremely unlikely that any decision to establish Calderón as the president-elect will cool the movement supporting López Obrador. This leads to the very real consideration of what will be done to defuse the situation. The military is slated to carry out a major procession along the route that the demonstration for the 16th is supposed to take, and any over-assertion of force could lead to a hardened resistance and to its spreading across the country, especially in areas where there is already outright resistance to the current government, as in Chiapas and Oaxaca at present. There is not firm support across the population, though. A poll published by El Universal newspaper yesterday, reports that 71% of those polled disagree with López Obrador's civil resistance movement, and prefer other measures. But only 51% believe the election was "clean", as ruled by the federal electoral tribunal. With 39% believing there was outright fraud at polling stations, it is not clear that any decision by the electoral tribunal (which has already said it believes there was none) will help reach a consensus among Mexican voters or the general populace. The decision is due to come after the 7 justices meet at 8am Mexico City time, today. [s]
CONTROVERSIA Y ENFRENTAMIENTO DOMINAN EN MÉXICO ESTOS DÍAS Ahora que el Tribunal Electoral mexicano ha declarado ganador al candidato del partido reinante, y su principal contrincante progresista ha iniciado un gobierno paralelo, la tensión el enfrentamiento político parecen haber aumentado. Ahora el presidente de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, ha dicho en una entrevista con CNN que no reconocerá el gobierno del presidente electo, Felipe Calderón. [Texto completo] GOBERNAR SERÁ UN RETO PARA EL GANADOR DECLARADO DEL VOTO MEXICANO: FELIPE CALDERÓN La Vanguardia, periódico español, informa que el nuevo presidente electo de México, Felipe Calderón, tendrá un trabajo altamente difícil cuando asume el mando del gobierno. El reto más inmediato es la "insurrección" civil de su contrincante electoral, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, que dice que no sólo seguirá cuestionando la legitimidad de su ascendencia, sino que formará un gobierno paralelo. [Texto completo] |
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