A recount on Thursday showed Mexico’s Enrique Pena Nieto as the clear winner of Sunday’s presidential election, but the runner-up still refused to concede, alleging Pena Nieto’s party bought millions of votes. The results set up a return to power for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which governed Mexico from 1929 to 2000, when it was frequently accused of vote-rigging. With 99 percent of polling stations counted or recounted, Pena Nieto held 38.2 percent of the vote, 6.7 points ahead of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, expected to conclude the final recount later on Thursday and certify the results on Sunday, when an official count of the congressional elections was also due.
Pena Nieto claimed victory last Sunday when initial results showed him winning some 38 percent of the vote, about 6.5 points more than Lopez Obrador. Trailing in third was Josefina Vazquez Mota of the ruling conservative National Action Party, or PAN. Lopez Obrador asked for a full recount, but the IFE said it would only recount ballots from 54 percent of polling stations, saying it was guided by specific conditions of election law. “It’s clear that I have won these elections with a wide margin of the vote,” Pena Nieto told CNN on Thursday, saying there were “no grounds” for allegations of vote-buying.
The PRI called for an investigation by the attorney general’s office into what it considered false accusations. Pena Nieto has already been congratulated by outgoing President Felipe Calderon and leaders such as U.S. President Barack Obama and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
Full Article: Mexican vote recount confirms Pena Nieto win | Reuters.
