JURIST - Paper Chase: Mexico electoral court declares Calderon winner of disputed presidential race

[JURIST] Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal [official website, in Spanish] on Tuesday certified Felipe Calderon [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile] as the winner of Mexico's disputed July 2 presidential election [JURIST news archive]. Calderon's opponent, leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile], who argued before the court that preliminary results [JURIST report] giving Calderon a victory by just 0.6 percent of the vote were marred by fraud [JURIST report], has already promised to ignore the ruling and has said that he will refuse to recognize Calderon as winner. Earlier Tuesday, court president Leonel Castillo recommended [Reuters report] that the judges vote to approve a final tally that gave Calderon the lead by 233,831 votes. In earlier rulings, the court rejected most of Lopez Obrador's challenges [JURIST report], ruling there was no evidence of systematic fraud. The decision to certify Calderon as president-elect is final and cannot be appealed.

Lopez Obrador over the weekend indicated he plans to organize a constitutional convention [JURIST report] to draft a new constitution, saying Mexico's current constitution [text] is in need of a "radical transformation." Lopez Obrador has said that he will introduce an "alternative government," of which he will serve as president, at a rally scheduled for September 16, Mexico's Independence Day. AP has more.

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