Mexican court rejects full ballot recount

MEXICO CITY -- A federal electoral tribunal yesterday unanimously rejected a petition for a full recount of Mexico's presidential election, setting the stage for escalating protests by supporters of losing candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who last week blockaded the capital's main boulevard.

In an evening address to tens of thousands of followers in Mexico City's central square, the leftist candidate denounced the tribunal decision to conduct only a partial recount and said he would announce the next step in his campaign of civil disobedience today.

``For us, it's very clear," he said. ``If they refuse a full recount, that's proof that we won the presidential election. . . . They may have the money and the power, but we have what's most important, the people's support."

López Obrador, whose campaign promised help to Mexico's poor, asserts that errors, fraud, and a conspiracy by the elite tainted the July 2 election. He lost by less than a percentage point and has demanded a recount of all 41 million votes cast in an election that was supposed to showcase Mexico's transition to a modern democracy and instead has divided the country.

Free-market conservative Felipe Calderon, who finished first by 244,000 votes, says he is the rightfully elected leader of Mexico, the second-biggest US-trading partner and the world's fifth-largest oil producer. Calderon argued against a recount, saying there were no legal grounds , and urged the court not to bow to protesters.

López Obrador waged his recount campaign with the slogan, Vote by Vote. The former Mexico City mayor's postelection strategy centered on the question, ``In such a close election, why not erase doubts and count twice?"

The seven-judge tribunal agreed to recount votes cast at 11,839 polling stations in 26 Mexican states because of apparent arithmetic errors or other irregularities. Recounts must be based on evidence specific to a poll station, said Justice Alfonsina Berta Navarro Hidalgo, not broad suspicion.

But chief magistrate Leonel Castillo Gonzalez, arguing against a full recount, said Mexicans had already counted the vote in a system that gives citizens the job of running the national election.

Mexican polling stations are operated by volunteers, and the votes are counted in front of political party representatives before the results are marked on tally sheets and the ballot boxes sealed.

``They are citizens, not permanent members of state institutions, who are chosen randomly among their own neighbors to count the votes," Castillo said during a nationally televised broadcast of yesterday's session.

The polling stations marked for recount -- 9 percent of 130,488 such stations nationwide -- represent millions of votes. The partial recount begins Wednesday and is expected to take five days.