JURIST - Paper Chase: Mexico election court rejects most fraud challenges in disputed presidential race

[JURIST] Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal [official website, in Spanish] on Monday rejected most challenges to last month's disputed presidential election [JURIST report], dismissing the bulk of fraud allegations brought by leftist challenger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish]. Lopez Obrador filed over 200 separate complaints challenging the preliminary vote count [JURIST report] which conservative candidate Felipe Calderon [campaign website, in Spanish] won by just 0.6 percent of the vote. Lopez Obrador argued that fraudulent election practices [JURIST report] allowed Calderon to win the election, but the Mexican electoral court refused to order a full manual recount [JURIST report], instead ordering a recount of ballots at just nine percent of the nation's polling places.

Announcing the rulings Monday, Judge Jose Luna said that some results were overturned due to fraud, but that "all the parties lost a considerable amount of votes" and that the results were not affected by the changes. The court must still officially declare a winner and has until September 6 to do so. Lopez Obrador's party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) [party website, in Spanish], has already indicated they expected the court to rule against Lopez Obrador [JURIST report]. Party officials, however, plan to continue nonviolent protests [JURIST report] in Mexico City. Reuters has more.

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