The American Spectator

Special Report

Lopez Obrador's Election Fraud

By Jorge Amador on 11.28.06 @ 12:08AM

(Page 2 of 2)

The Federal Electoral Tribunal (TRIFE), the country's supreme elections authority, avoided falling for this trick but decided to carry out a partial recount including the disputed precincts. The recount eventually trimmed Calderon's lead by about 4000 votes to some 239,000. On August 28, the TRIFE ruled unanimously to reject the PRD's appeals on the grounds that irregularities were too few and insignificant to affect the outcome of the election. A week later the tribunal officially certified the PAN candidate's victory.

THE COURT'S DECISION RADICALIZED elements of the Mexican left. AMLO turned up the rhetorical heat, opposing what he termed a "coup d'etat" and calling for a "democratic national convention" in September to set up a "resistance government." By a simple show of hands, the self-selected convention delegates proclaimed the former Mexico City mayor as Mexico's "legitimate president" on September 16.

"To hell with their institutions," thundered the PRD standardbearer. "We have no respect for their institutions, because they are not the people's institutions, and we will create our own, the people's institutions." Party spokesman Gerardo Fernandez publicly speculated whether Calderon "would be able to start his term, and I really don't see how he'll be able to finish it out peacefully and legally." On September 1, PRD lawmakers stormed the podium at the legislative palace to prevent outgoing president Vicente Fox from giving his annual address to the Mexican Congress.

PRD strategist Manuel Camacho told London's Financial Times that unless the election were annulled, "We would lead a movement that does not recognize the country's institutions and inevitably that would mean escalating the political confrontation." Old resentments bubbled back up to the surface. "We lived through 500 years of repression," said one protester in reference to the European conquest of indigenous Mexicans, "and now we represent the new face of Mexico."

Fortunately for Mexico, not all leftwing leaders endorse Lopez Obrador's challenge. At least three PRD state governors, forty PRD legislators, some smaller parties in AMLO's coalition, and party founder Cuauhtemoc Cardenas accept the election results, denouncing the former nominee's tactics as harmful to the Left and the man himself as an authoritarian threat to the country. Even the iconic Evo Morales and Spain's Socialist government have recognized Calderon's election.

But others welcome the chance to stir things up. The Workers Party pledged to form "people's defense committees" in Mexico City in support of the alternative government. Both sides have dug in their heels for the December 1 inauguration: On November 11, the PRD national committee voted to block Calderon from taking office "at all costs," whereas PAN legislators predicted that the installation would take place "even if public force were to become necessary."

The likeliest outcome in the short run is that Calderon will be sworn in somewhere, while Lopez Obrador and his diehards will forge ahead with their alternative government, moving from "civil resistance" to civil disobedience including the withholding of tax payments. What might happen next is anybody's guess.

TO BE SURE, ELECTIONS IN MEXICO have not always been exactly clean. Lopez Obrador himself is generally acknowledged to have been cheated out of the Tabasco state governor's seat by the PRI in 1994 -- a scandalous episode which lends a superficial credence to his current claims, but which also helped to bring about the creation of today's independent, nonpartisan election authorities. Mexicans now can boast of one of the cleanest electoral systems in the world; indeed European Union observers praised this year's election for its transparency.

Nearly one million Mexicans received intensive training to serve as election workers, guided by detailed requirements for handling both marked and unmarked ballots. Precinct vote counts were conducted in the presence of party pollwatchers; under the law, tally sheets could not be certified and election materials could not be sealed unless the various party representatives signed off on them. As campaign diarist Carlos Ramirez noted, "There simply could not have been any fraud."

"Calumniez, calumniez; il en reste toujours quelque chose," wrote Pierre de Beaumarchais in The Barber of Seville (1772). We may translate the French dramatist's proverb loosely as, "Keep throwing mud, something's got to stick!" Yet Lopez Obrador's slander campaign against his country's democratic system has failed to stick with the two-thirds of Mexicans who voted against him; in fact support for the "legitimate president" has eroded even within his own camp. Polls suggest that the "spurious" victor, Calderon, would win by as much as 16 points if the election were held today.

But ideas do have consequences. The carefully maintained illusion of official chicanery has radicalized a hard core of AMLO true believers, pulling Mexico closer to the edge of the abyss.

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topics:
Law, Supreme Court, European Union