Pena Nieto claims victory in Mexico presidential vote
MEXICO CITY: Enrique Pena Nieto, the youthful candidate of the
party that governed Mexico for decades, claimed victory late Sunday in
the country’s presidential election. The candidate for the Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI) cited the first official results announced by
the independent Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) as proof that he won.
The results showed Pena Nieto with 38 percent of the vote against
31-32 percent for his nearest rival, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
The margin was not as wide as in exit polls, but was difficult to
overcome.
Pena Nieto, 45, entered the PRI headquarters in Mexico City to a
hero’s welcome soon after the results were announced.
“Presidente! Presidente!” the crowd chanted.
“The day of voting has ended. The country now demands ... the unity
of all Mexicans,” he said, then thanked the other candidates by name for
what he said was their contribution to democracy. He also thanked
outgoing President Alvaro Calderon by name “for his democratic
vocation.” IFE president Leondardo Valdes said the first official
results were based on returns from 7,500 polling stations and have a 0.5
percent margin of error.
“More votes were cast in this election than in any other election in
Mexico’s history,” Valdes said.
Lopez Obrador however refused to concede.
“We are going to wait until we have definitive results,” he said. “We
are not going to act in an irresponsible way. At the right time we will
inform the people of Mexico.” In 2006, when Lopez Obrador ran for
president and lost by less than one percent, he organized protests that
paralyzed Mexico City for more than a month, then swore in as the
“legitimate” president and even appointed a cabinet.
Far behind in the IFE results was Josefina Vazquez Mota from
Calderon’s conservative National Action Party (PAN) with 25 percent. “I
recognize that the tendencies up to now do not favor me,” Vazquez Mota
told a crowd of loyalists in a de facto concession speech.
Pena Nieto’s win marks a comeback for the center-left PRI, which
ruled for seven decades until 2000 through a mixture of patronage and
selective repression.
The dapper, perfectly-coifed is an ex-governor of the populous state
of Mexico, located just west of the capital.
He is married to glamorous telenovela star Angelica Rivera, and
benefited from his family connections with powerful old guard PRI
politicos as well as a stellar media team that carefully managed his
appearances.
Calderon’s PAN has been hemorrhaging support due to the brutal drug
violence that has killed more than 50,000 people since he came to power
in 2006.
His military crackdown on the cartels has turned parts of the country
into war zones.
The economy grew under the PAN, but so did poverty: 47 percent of
Mexico’s 112 million residents are poor, according to government
figures. Mexico may be Latin America’s second biggest economy after
Brazil, but there are nearly 15 million more poor people since the PRI
left power, figures show. Poverty ranks second among voter concerns
after insecurity.
Election officials worked hard to convince skeptics that the ballot
will be clean but faced a raft of complaints in the lead-up to the vote.
The PAN accused the PRI of handing out more than 9,900 gift cards to
influence voters. Election officials pledged an investigation but
refused to freeze a bank account linked to the cards containing some
$5.2 million.
The PRI in turn accused the PRD and PAN of attempting to sway voters
by handing out bags of food and building materials. And the PRD alleged
“very serious irregularities” including PRI fuel charge cards.
Nearly one million Mexicans -- including election workers, volunteer
citizens and party representatives -- as well as 700 international
observers were at polling stations overseeing the vote.
Also up for grabs are 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, where
members serve for three years; 128 seats in the Senate, which has
six-year terms; and various mayoralties and governorships.
AFP |