MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fox and Lopez Obrador on collision course

Mexican President Vicente Fox confirmed Friday that he will preside over official Independence Day celebrations including a military parade, in spite of protestors' sit-in encampments in Mexico City's main avenues and plaza.

Followers of hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who claims he is the victim of a government sponsored electoral "fraud" operation in the contested presidential election of last July 2 have been involved in massive "civil resistance" actions in the capital of Mexico demanding a recount of the 41 million votes cast.

Speaking from Dolores Hidalgo where Mexico's first independence actions from Spain took place 196 years ago, President Fox said that on the night of September 15 he will re-enact the "glorious day" from the balcony of the National Palace overlooking Mexico City's main square, El Zocalo, where Lopez Obrador's protestors have camped.

"We'll give the Cry at the National Palace ... this is not a government act of protocol, but rather a celebration involving all citizens that we deeply respect and for that reason we'll do it in the Zocalo" underlined Fox.

The following day Fox will preside over a military parade that will march through some of the streets surrounding the giant square, which also have been occupied by supporters of Lopez Obrador, the standard-bearer of a coalition led by the opposition left-leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution, PRD.

Lopez Obrador maintains the disruptions are justified in the face of the "fraud" perpetrated in the July 2 presidential contest, which shows him losing to conservative Felipe Calderon from the ruling coalition by a margin of just under 244,000 votes, 0.58%, from a total 41 million ballots cast.

Lopez Obrador and the PRD have convened a "national democratic convention" in the Zocalo for September 16 in coincidence with the Mexican Armed Forces parade.

PRD officials said "we expect half a million people to turn up?and they will proclaim Lopez Obrador president of the Republic".

Next September 6 the Mexican Federal Electoral Tribunal, Trife, which has the last word in electoral affairs, must officially announce the winner of the July 2 election who will succeed Mr. Fox on December first.

The PRD decision to have a mass political rally on September 6 in the main Zocalo square is seen by Mexican political analysts as a signal that Trife will confirm Mr. Calderon as Mexico's elected president.

In Dolores Hidalgo Fox insisted that "respect for the law and institutions are the basis for (peaceful) coexistence and governance", but "refusing to acknowledge a court's authority is to refuse, reject respect for the rule of law".

Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar said that in mid-September "Mexico will have an only constitutional president, Vicente Fox, and a (president)-elect to be announced by Trife following the certification of election results".

"If some other Mexican fulfils his fantasies of becoming a self proclaimed president, well, that has nothing to do with a constitutional president elected by citizens or with the rule of the law. It would simply be folkloric, and amount to nothing" said Aguilar.