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Calderon declared winner, appeals for national unity

President Felipe Calderon called on political friends and foes to come together and said his top priorities would be fighting poverty and crime, after he was declared winner of the hotly contested July 2 election.

"The electoral process has ended. The time has come for unity and for agreements," the conservative Calderon said from his National Action Party [PAN] headquarters hours after the Federal Electoral Tribunal announced its unanimous decision on Tuesday.

It was unclear whether Calderon's leftist rival in the election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, would heed Calderon's call, since he rejected the electoral authority's decision on the outcome of the vote.

"I express my decision to reject the ruling of the electoral tribunal and refuse to recognize the one who presents himself as the holder of federal executive power," Lopez Obrador told a few hundred supporters in downtown Mexico City.

Calderon reached out to Lopez Obrador and other political rivals, urging them to "come together" and promising to incorporate their "most valuable" proposals to his political agenda.
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