MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexican hopefuls promise to respect election result

Mexican presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador softened his stance Monday saying he will accept defeat in Sunday's election as long as it was clear that voting had been “free and clean”, with a precinct by precinct review”.

Lopez Obrador from the Party of the Democratic Revolution, PRD, claimed victory Sunday calling his triumph "irreversible" and vowing to defend his position despite having trailed, slightly behind, (too close to call) Conservative Felipe Calderón belonging to the ruling National Action Party.

"In a democracy, you win or lose, and we are going to continue acting responsibly, but we are also going to defend the will of the people if it favours us" announced the former mayor of Mexico City Lopez Obrador to a local television network.

"For the good of all ... let's have patience" Lopez Obrador urged his supporters, adding that if he lost, he would accept defeat, but if he won "even by only one or two votes, I am going to defend the victory".

In Mexico's tightest presidential election ever and following a preliminary count of 95.8% of all ballots, Calderon figures with 36.46% and Lopez Obrador's 35.42%, according to the independent Federal Electoral Institute, IFE, in a mid morning Monday release.

"There is a result that is already irreversible, that has me ahead by more than 400.000 votes over the PRD candidate", Calderon told a Mexico City television network.

The former Energy Minister said votes remained to be counted in the northern states of Baja California, Chihuahua, Durango, Jalisco, Sonora and Sinaloa, as well as in the Gulf state of Campeche, all places where he believes he won.

"The precincts that remain allow us to anticipate that the difference will probably expand," Calderon said.

Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was a distant third, with 21.28% of the vote.

However IFE repeatedly went on national television to say that its quick-count of results from more than 7,000 polling booths, "did not provide a sufficient margin to project a winner", adding that the official recount begins Wednesday, and a winner would be declared when that process is completes.

Unnamed IFE sources revealed that the plus/minus difference between the two candidates is in the range of 200.000 votes, out of a total of 42 million.

Calderon is favoured by the business community and middle class while the charismatic Lopez Obrador has enshrined himself as the candidate of the humble and poor.

Calderon said that "once I am formally declared president-elect," he would seek to form "a government of national unity".

In the congressional election Calderon's PAN stands to enjoy a plurality in both houses but Lopez Obrador's PRD and the PRI will both have significant representations, which will necessarily force the next government to some form of understanding or alliance.

As was forecasted the PRD candidate Marcelo Ebrard won by an ample margin the seat of former Mexico City mayor Lopez Obrador