Lopez Obrador Alleges Mexico Election Fraud and Seeks Recount Eric Martin and Jonathan Roeder - Bloomberg News
go to original July 4, 2012

Lopez Obrador supporters have taken to the streets to protest at the result. (AP)

Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called for a recount of votes from the July 1 election, saying the contest was “a national embarrassment” marred by vote-buying from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

The coalition backing Lopez Obrador, headed by the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, said it has detected irregularities at about 113,000 of Mexico’s 143,000 polling stations and the PRI’s winning candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto spent “billions of pesos” to buy votes.

“We’re not asking for any favors, we’re asking for the law to be respected,” Lopez Obrador told reporters packed into the outdoor courtyard of a house in Mexico City’s middle-class Roma neighborhood that has served as his headquarters since he lost the last election to President Felipe Calderon in 2006. “All the votes must be counted.”

Preliminary results from the Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, show Pena Nieto captured 38.2 percent of votes, compared with 31.6 percent for Lopez Obrador. Pena Nieto received 3.19 million votes more than Lopez Obrador, the data show.

The final results are expected to be compiled this weekend. Electoral institute councilor Francisco Guerrero Aguirre said yesterday the contest was “the most transparent in Mexico’s history,” according to an e-mailed transcript of his remarks.

Dozens of protesters gathered last night outside IFE’s main office in a southern neighborhood of Mexico City, shouting anti- PRI and anti-Pena Nieto chants. They were separated from the complex’s gates by a two-deep cordon of at least 100 police officers clad in green reflective jackets.
PRI Denial

The PRI denies Lopez Obrador’s allegations.

“The charges are offensive to the dignity of all the voters who supported Pena Nieto, because they allege that Mexican voters are susceptible to vote buying,” party spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said in a phone interview July 2.

Lopez Obrador, 58, lost the 2006 election to Calderon by less than a percentage point. To protest the result, which he said was fraudulent, he occupied Mexico City’s central plaza and main business avenue for weeks with encampments, angering some capital residents.

The candidate has given no indication he will follow a similar strategy this time round, instead saying complaints about the election will be filed to the electoral institute and tribunal.

Mexico’s peso gained less than 0.1 percent to 13.3311 against the U.S. dollar yesterday. Yields on benchmark peso bonds maturing in 2024 fell 5 basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to a record low 5.43 percent. The securities’ yields have declined eight basis points since the election.
‘Keep Barking’

The market is shrugging off Lopez Obrador’s refusal to concede defeat, said Claudio Irigoyen, head of Latin America fixed-income and foreign-exchange strategy at Bank of America Corp.

“He’ll probably keep barking, but that’s all that’s going to happen,” Irigoyen said in a phone interview from New York. Six years ago, Lopez Obrador “might have had a point because it was a close election, now nobody has a doubt that Pena Nieto won so I think it’s going nowhere.”

In 2006, the peso lost 6.3 percent in the six months leading up to the election. This year, it gained 4.3 percent over the same period, making it the best performer among major currencies.

“Once the results are confirmed the markets are going to focus on the ability of Pena Nieto to make a coalition with PAN to pass his reforms,” Irigoyen said, referring to Calderon’s National Action Party.

Pena Nieto has pledged initiatives to increase Mexico’s tax collection, boost formal employment and allow greater private investment in the oil industry.
Favorable Coverage

Lopez Obrador said that Pena Nieto was favored by Mexico’s media during the campaign and the PRI exceeded spending limits established by the electoral authority.

The buying of votes “is a subject of legality,” said Senator Alberto Anaya, of the Labor Party, a member of the coalition supporting Lopez Obrador.

“The recount will permit a complete view of the results of the election,” Anaya said in an interview in Mexico City following Lopez Obrador’s press conference. “It’s something that the law establishes, that when there are inconsistencies in the acts and elements of the vote, a recount is obligatory.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Martin in Mexico City at emartin21@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Roeder at jroeder@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net.

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