“Without a solution, there’ll be revolution”

Mexico Orders Only Partial Recount in Presidential Vote

by Catherine Bremer
Reuters
August 5, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s top electoral court ordered a partial recount on Saturday in a fiercely contested presidential election, angering leftists who are threatening mass protests unless all votes are counted again.

The court’s seven judges rejected demands to re-open every ballot box across Mexico and instead ordered a recount next week at 9 percent of the almost 130,500 polling stations.

Leftist challenger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wants a full recount of the more than 41 million votes cast in the July 2 election. His conservative ruling party rival Felipe Calderon won a razor-thin victory, but Lopez Obrador claims massive fraud.

The electoral court could still order many more ballot boxes opened.

Dozens of leftists shouted “Traitors!” outside the court building after the ruling.

“Without a solution, there’ll be revolution,” they yelled.

Lopez Obrador, a fiery anti-poverty campaigner and former mayor of Mexico City, has repeatedly said he would not accept a partial recount, raising fears of prolonged public unrest.

His supporters shut down central Mexico City all week and are threatening to extend the protests.

“Not just a small part of the vote returns, we want all the polls re-opened,” Lopez Obrador told thousands of supporters on Friday night in the capital’s vast Zocalo square.

He met with his closest advisors on Saturday afternoon to plan his next move. Some supporters warned of violence ahead.

“We are not going to allow this. We want all the polling stations, all 130,000. They are closing the path to democracy and the only thing left to us will be violence because we are not going to back down,” said Pilar Saavedra, a university office worker.

Demonstrators left four fake coffins outside the court building with the message: “Democracy, R.I.P.”

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