Reuters : Calderon wins Mexican presidency

Calderon wins Mexican presidency

by Alistair Bell and Catherine Bremer | September 6, 2006

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Ruling party conservative Felipe Calderon finally won Mexico's presidency on Tuesday, ending a two-month legal battle over fraud claims at a July election that has plunged the nation into a crisis.

Seven judges at Mexico's top electoral court unanimously ruled that the vote was not rigged and that pro-business candidate Calderon, 44, had won by a razor-thin margin of about 234,000 votes out of some 41 million cast.

But left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will almost certainly refuse to accept the ruling and has vowed he will never recognise Calderon as president. His street protests could stretch on for months.

The election split the nation of over 100 million people along class lines, and protests by Lopez Obrador supporters claiming fraud have paralyzed the centre of Mexico City.

A top adviser said Calderon was aware he had to heal divisions. "Felipe Calderon is now president. The challenge of reconciliation awaits him," said Josefina Vazquez Mota.

Calderon's victory is good news for the United States as he will be a key ally in Latin America, where leftist presidents critical of Washington have taken power in recent years.

The White House congratulated Calderon, applauded the court's decision and said the election was "free and fair."

Calderon received another boost when the Convergencia party, part of the coalition that backed Lopez Obrador's presidential bid, said it accepted the court's ruling.

Mexico only introduced full democracy with President Vicente Fox's victory at the last presidential election in 2000. Calderon will have to work hard to dampen leftist anger and also win support in Congress for economic reforms.

The judges, whose decision cannot be appealed, had already thrown out claims by Lopez Obrador of massive vote rigging.

They censured Fox on Tuesday for breaking presidential neutrality and backing Calderon during the bitter election campaign, but ruled that his intervention was not serious enough to change the final result of the July 2 vote.

'DEATH TO FOX'

Protesters burnt a poster of the president's face in the capital's main Zocalo square and chanted, "Death To Fox."

Around 30 percent of Mexicans believe Calderon's victory was fraudulent, according to opinion polls.

"We don't want him, we are going to overthrow him," said Belen, 67, a mother of 11 from western Mexico who clung to the railings outside the court on Tuesday, sticking her middle finger up at the court house.

On the other side of the social divide, many were simply relieved the court's decision moved Calderon closer to power and hoped it would help kill off fraud protests.

"Now we can sleep easy. Mexico doesn't need a modern Robin Hood, like Lopez Obrador was trying to be," said Josefina del Castillo, sipping coffee at a posh Mexico City cafe.

Lopez Obrador, a fiery speaker who promised to give priority to Mexico's millions of poor, has said he will set up a parallel government with support from the streets.

He accuses judges, electoral authorities, media and big business of forming a powerful front against him, and vows to make life unbearable for Calderon in his six years in office, which starts on December 1.

Some protesters threw eggs at reporters at the court.

"This changes nothing," said Lopez Obrador supporter Francisco Gonzalez, watching the court rulings on television.

Leftists set off fireworks outside the court building in protest, and the explosions were heard inside.

Calderon plans to cut deals with centrist opposition parties to push pro-business tax, labour and energy reforms through Congress, where his National Action Party is the biggest party but remains well short of a majority.

He hopes to win support from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years until 2000 and was humbled into third place in the July elections.

(Additional reporting by Kieran Murray, Chris Aspin and Greg Brosnan)

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