JURIST - Paper Chase: BREAKING NEWS ~ Mexico electoral court rejects ballot-by-ballot presidential recount

[JURIST] Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal [official website, in Spanish] on Saturday rejected a request by leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish] for a full ballot-by-ballot recount of all votes cast in the July 2 presidential election [JURIST news archive], which Obrador lost by less than a percentage point to conservative Felipe Calderon, instead authorizing a partial recount of returns at 11,839 of the country's approximately 130,500 polling stations. Obrador's lawyers argued [JURIST report] before the tribunal's seven judges last week that there were errors, falsifications and other problems at over half of Mexico's polling places, and that a recount would clarify any dispute concerning the election. Representatives of the Obrador campaign walked out of the tribunal Saturday after the ruling was announced. Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage.

Last month Obrador also filed a criminal complaint [JURIST report] against the Federal Electoral Institute [official website, in Spanish], the commission that oversaw the vote. Obrador has encouraged "peaceful civil resistance" pending a resolution of the electoral crisis. A Monday protest in Mexico City, where Obrador was formerly mayor, brought out several hundred thousand demonstrators [JURIST report].

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