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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Mexico pulls off a near "10" in electoral order |
| 2006-07-05 |
| by Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party hasn't any doubt that he won Sunday's presidential election, and he says that his adversary, The big victory in this race goes to the IFE in carrying out a spectacularly clean, transparent and well-organized election. If institutions matter to development, as Nobel laureate Douglass North contends, then Mexico is well on the way to progress. Mr. Calderón echoed the sentiments of millions of Mexicans when he told me yesterday that watching the electoral process made him "proud to be a Mexican." Mexico's next test will be how it stands up to Mr. López Obrador's threat to call street protests if the IFE decision goes against him. The race was every bit as tight as pollsters had predicted. And by Monday morning when it began to appear that Mr. López Obrador had secured only second place, Mexicans were treated, on national television, to a flash of anger that revealed the trademark intolerance that has made him such a polarizing figure: The red- faced candidate gripped the podium in frustration, pledging to exhaust every available legal channel. His head shook uncontrollably as he demanded that the country "respect" his "triumph." Yesterday, his senior aides told Reuters that his supporters would take to the streets if the election authorities don't go his way. The problem for Mr. López Obrador is that in order to prevail, he has to do more than convince Mexicans that Mr. Calderón is a thieving opponent who managed a massive conspiracy against the will of the people. He also has to portray the IFE and the thousands of citizen volunteers--who on Sunday put on a clinic for the rest of the world on how to run a transparent and orderly election--as enemies of the Mexican people. That won't be easy, and public opinion is fast turning against him. Mr. López Obrador now claims that there are three million "lost" votes, and that he senses all kinds of "irregularities," none of which are backed up with evidence. While all the votes are not yet in the official tallies because of a technicality in reporting, the Calderón team remains confident that they are accounted for in the totals that all parties now have, and that the outcome will not change. Mr. Calderón, for his part, is reaching out to his political competition and looking presidential and civil. In a clear reference to the López Obrador campaign, he told me on Tuesday that Mexicans sent a message at the polls that they want a tolerant, pluralistic society, not one of "hatred." This "is the hour of reconciliation and unity." He is already talking about a coalition government that will reach across the aisle to get things done, and has noted that the way in which Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has worked across parties lines has been instructive to him. In the past 48 hours, Mexico has watched two distinct management styles unfold. Indeed, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the very reason that Mr. Calderón seems set to take the office of president is precisely because Mexicans feared the López Obrador they are now witnessing. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #9 Jimmuh don't bless an election unless a Commnunist Dictator wins. Sorta the Noam Chumpsky rule of elections. |
| Posted by: macofromoc 2006-07-05 13:38 |
| #8 Don't mean nothin' until Jimmuh Carter blesses this election! /sarcasm |
| Posted by: Fur Trapper 2006-07-05 11:14 |
| #7 Stinking badges. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-07-05 09:45 |
| #6 Obrador sounds like another Mark Latham (Oz election). Mexico has dodged a bullet. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2006-07-05 09:42 |
| #5 Como se dice "Hanging Chads" in espanol? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-07-05 09:24 |
| #4 I see that lopez is taking the Democratic approach to a lost election. "Lost Votes", disfranchisement, conspiracy, etc. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-07-05 09:22 |
| #3 thanks... i should look before I leap :-) |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-07-05 08:43 |
| #2 2b: this is edited down considerably from the original. As I read the full text, I don't think O'Grady is minimizing the fact that Calderon is a conservative; her newspaper, the WSJ, has not been shy about backing him just because he's conservative. |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-07-05 08:37 |
| #1 oh, I see. It wasn't because Calderon was conservative. No, no, certainly not! It's because Obrador was crazy. That's the ticket! |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-07-05 08:32 |