Guardian : Protesters defiant as conservative wins Mexico poll

Protesters defiant as conservative wins Mexico poll

· Calderón finally declared winner by tiny margin
· Left pledges to carry on with mass street action

by Jo Tuckman in Mexico City | Wednesday September 6, 2006

Mexico's highest electoral court has confirmed that the conservative governing party candidate, Felipe Calderón, has won the country's disputed presidential poll, throwing out the argument made by his leftist rival Andrés Manuel López Obrador that the election was so unfair it should be annulled.

An emotional crowd in the capital's great Zócalo plaza - the headquarters of Mr López Obrador's protest movement - greeted the ruling with anger, defiance and some heartfelt sobs.

The former mayor of Mexico City did not give any immediate public reaction, although in recent days he has made it clear that this is far from the end of the story. In speeches foreseeing the adverse ruling, he has begun to transform his claims of fraud into an active challenge to the legitimacy of the country's institutional order.

Calling Mr Calderón a "usurper", Mr López Obrador has floated the idea of forming a parallel government "of the people to rival that of the political mafia and white-collar criminals". Such fiery talk has some observers talking about insurrection and others fearing a violent rightwing backlash.

Even those who predict Mr López Obrador's movement will fizzle out expect a degree of political chaos, at least until outgoing President Vicente Fox hands over to Mr Calderón on December 1.

Mr Calderón heard the court's ratification of his victory inside his party's headquarters, guarded by busloads of riot police. He received congratulations from President Fox and was expected to give a victory speech later in the day.

In their unanimous ruling - which cannot be appealed against - the court's seven magistrates detailed the charges that the July 2 election was biased.

The complaints included President Fox's use of the state apparatus to favour the governing party candidate during the campaign, as well as negative advertising that compared the leftist candidate to Venezuela's controversial President Hugo Chávez. The magistrates identified some of these as problematic but did not consider them serious enough to question the legality of the election.

The court had already dismissed the leftist's claims that the count was rigged in a decision it made last month after carrying out a partial recount of 9% of ballots cast. The final official tally gives Mr Calderón a razor-thin 0.55% lead over Mr López Obrador, just 0.03% smaller than the difference in the original count after the polling stations closed.

The court's president, Leonel Castillo, called on Mexicans to heal the divisions opened by the election. "I hope we can conclude this electoral process, leaving confrontation behind," he said.

But Mr López Obrador has from the start put more emphasis on his strategy on the street than the legal battle. A series of huge marches culminated in probably the largest demonstration in Mexican history in early August that was turned into a huge sit-in, stretching for several miles from the business district to the Zócalo in the old colonial centre.

Mr López Obrador has slept in the Zócalo, emerging in the evenings to give increasingly radical speeches. "To hell with their institutions," he said on Friday, shortly before deputies from his party seized control of the national parliament, preventing President Fox from giving his last state of the nation address.

He has focused on the "national convention of democracy" planned for September 16, in which he says a million delegates will decide whether to elect him. While he has a solid base of supporters, a recent poll by GEA-ISA indicated 20% of Mexicans support his methods, compared with 37% who believe there was fraud but not enough to push his movement to a new stage. The survey also suggested the nation is getting nervous, with 71% fearing social violence and 65% economic crisis.