Mexico’s electoral commission has declared centrist candidate Enrique Pena Nieto the winner of the presidential election. The announcement comes after a recount of more than half the ballots. Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has decisively won Mexico’s presidential election, after allegations of vote buying forced a recount of more than half the ballots. The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) reported on Friday that Nieto had won 38.21 percent of the vote, while leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) came in second with 31.59 percent. Josefina Vazquez Mota of outgoing President Felipe Calderon’s conservative National Action Party (PAN) garnered 25.41 percent of the vote.
Officials at the IFE carried out a vote-by-vote recount of results at more than half of the country’s polling stations amid claims that Nieto’s party had bought votes. “It’s clear that I have won these elections with a wide margin of the vote,” Nieto told the news organization CNN. The PRI built up a reputation for vote-rigging during its 71-year hold on power which ended when it was beaten by PAN in 2000.
Lopez Obrador of the PRD has refused to concede, prompting fears that there might be a repeat of the 2006 presidential election, which he lost by less than one percent. That result was followed by accusations of voting fraud and mass protests that paralyzed Mexico City for more than a month.
Full Article: Old guard wins Mexico election recount | News | DW.DE | 06.07.2012.
