In the latest exchange of heated words in Mexico's disputed presidential election, the election winners on Monday accused defeated candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of "unacceptable blackmail" for threatening continued political instability.
Mexican media said Cesar Nava, deputy secretary general of the governing National Action Party (PAN), made the remarks after Lopez Obrador said there would be no political stability or social peace until all 42 million votes cast on July 2 were recounted.
Lopez Obrador lost the election by a mere 0.58 percentage points (243,934 votes) to conservative free-market advocate Felipe Calderon, PAN's candidate. On Sunday, the leftist former mayor of Mexico City led 1 million people on a protest in the country's capital, again demanding a recount.
Nava said the votes had already been counted by "1 million citizens, in their capacity as poll officials." Nava added that the law only allows the reopening of ballot boxes in specific cases, which do not depend on the "satisfaction" of the candidates.
Lopez Obrador says 60 percent of the polling count sheets have been manipulated, and that there are 1.5 million votes not counted.
He alleges there was "fraud" to prevent the left from gaining power.
Fraud allegations similar to those of Lopez Obrador have in the past led the Mexican authorities to annul elections at the state level. Two elections were repeated in the states of Tabasco and Colima since 2000 because of evidence of fraud, although in both cases the second vote delivered the same result as the first round.
However, both the National Electoral Commission and international monitors have said that the July 2 election was fair.
The apparent victor Calderon on Monday said that Mexico had "no time to lose" in resolving the election dispute and allowing him to move on with his agenda, "as the citizens hope."
Lopez Obrador on Sunday said that Calderon should accept a new vote-by-vote recount for his own good and that of his family, in comments cited as "dangerous" by Calderon's political relations team.
"If [Calderon] claims he won, he has no reason to refuse [a recount]. I advise it for him, for his family, for those closest to him," Lopez Obrador said. "I recommend that he thinks very hard that the tarnish of a fraudulent election cannot be erased even by all the water in the oceans."
A further opposition street protest is planned for July 30. It would be the third such protest since the July 2 vote.
The leftist has indicated that he would stop the protests if there is a vote-by-vote recount and Calderon again is proclaimed the winner. But he has stressed that, even in that case, he would not accept Calderon's victory as legitimate.
Mexico's Electoral Tribunal must rule by Aug. 31 on Lopez Obrador's petition of a recount and must certify the election by Sept. 6, ahead of inauguration in December.
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