MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexican vote recount showing “errors”

The first of five days of partial vote recount in Mexico's contested presidential election has shown the existence of errors but representatives from the ruling coalition said Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon retains the tight advantage.

The partial recount is supervised by 200 magistrates and support staff and involves 149 districts which the Federal Electoral Tribunal, TRIFE, decided over the weekend to sample following massive protests from the loosing candidate, populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Mexico's electoral organization on the July 2 presidential election included 300 districts with 130.447 voting booths. Trife decided a recount in 9% of voting booths which hold four of the 41 million ballots deposited in all districts on Election Day.

According to the Federal Electoral Institute, IFE, which organized the election and made the initial vote count, Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon from the ruling National Action Party, PAN, garnered 243.934 more votes than his main competitor Lopez Obrador who insists that elections were rigged and claims systematic fraud.

Since then Lopez Obrador has been demanding a full recount of votes in all districts and has sponsored a peaceful "civil resistance" movement in support for his demand which has been followed by hundreds of thousands marching and camping in downtown Mexico City.

According to the Mexican press following the recount, errors have been discovered in several voting booths, although relatively minor and not even close to the magnitude inferred by Lopez Obrador.

"They won't find in the recount the votes they didn't have on Election Day", said German Martinez a Calderon representative in IFE.

Ricardo Monreal from Lopez Obrador's team argues "there's no such thing as a perfect crime; there was an organized fraud against Lopez Obrador and evidence is all over the place".

He insisted that ballot boxes sealed strapping have been found violated in at least fifteen districts, "which should be enough evidence for Trife magistrates to reconsider their last Saturday (recount) decision" when they rejected the proposal for a full recount of the 41 million votes.

Legally it is still possible to reopen all ballot boxes or a greater universe than the 11.839 decided by Trife, added Mr. Monreal.

Lopez Obrador delegate anticipated that the peaceful "civil resistance" strategy will continue to be implemented. Earlier this week access to banks in Mexico City was blocked by protestors and toll booths in highways leading to the country's capital occupied causing traffic chaos. The vote recount is schedule to end next Sunday. Trife has until August 31 to solve any impugnation and by September 6 must declare the validity of the election and officially announce the elected president.