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Mexican court throws out election fraud claims



By Upstream staff 

Photo by AFP


Mexico's top electoral court threw out leftists' allegations of massive fraud in last month's presidential election today, handing almost certain victory to conservative candidate Felipe Calderon.

The seven judges voted unanimously to reject most of the legal complaints by left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who said he was robbed of victory in the 2 July vote.

Calderon, a former energy minister from the ruling National Action Party, won the election by just 0.58 of a percentage point or 244,000 votes, the initial result showed.

The judges fell short of formally declaring Calderon the winner but said there were only marginal changes to the original results after recounts and annulments at some of the most fiercely contested polling stations.

"Based on the annulments that were deemed necessary, all the parties lost a considerable amount of votes but that did not affect the results," judge Jose Luna said.

The Mexican peso firmed 0.77% as investors were convinced that pro-business Calderon will now take over from President Vicente Fox on 1 December.

Lopez Obrador claims there were serious irregularities at more than half the polling stations. He has demanded a full recount of all 41 million votes cast and has launched street protests that have shut down central Mexico City.

The court annulled results from scores of polling stations after a partial recount earlier this month because of irregularities but there was no sign of huge fraud, the judges said.

"We can tell people that today their votes were worth something and that they are definitive," said another judge, Fernando Ojesto.

The election was the bitterest in Mexico's modern history and split the country between left and right.


Monday, 28 August, 2006, 17:46 GMT  | last updated: Monday, 28 August, 2006, 17:46 GMT

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