Electoral Court Set to Confirm Pena Nieto Victory Michael O'Boyle - Reuters
go to original August 29, 2012

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's electoral court is poised to confirm President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto's victory in the July 1 ballot, despite allegations of vote buying and money laundering during the campaign, electoral officials and legal experts said.

Leftist runner-up Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who lost the presidential election by 3.3 million votes, challenged the result, alleging that Pena Nieto's party used slush funds to buy votes and breached spending limits.

Lopez Obrador demanded that the electoral court void the result and the suit has left Mexico in political limbo for weeks, denying Pena Nieto a head start in building consensus on economic reforms in Congress, where his centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) failed to win enough seats for an outright majority.

Electoral officials have told Reuters privately they do not expect Pena Nieto's win to be overturned.

The court has until Sept. 6 to rule on Lopez Obrador's charges, although court workers say a decision could come as soon as this week before the new Congress convenes on Saturday.

Read more at Reuters

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