Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rallied his supporters for a mass demonstration in the Mexican capital yesterday to launch court appeals aimed at overturning his rival's apparent narrow presidential victory.
Lopez Obrador asked protesters to be peaceful and law-abiding, but also said the government would be responsible for any flare-up of anger after officials rejected his demand for a manual recount of last Sunday's extremely close vote.
"We are going to provide a channel for the great anger that exists among our supporters and those who voted for us, in the face of the manipulation of the elections," said Gerardo Fernandez, spokesman for the candidate's leftist Democratic Revolution Party.
Alberto Anaya, a leader of Lopez Obrador's coalition, said that "those who oppose clearing up these election results are the ones who could start to generate unrest and discontent."
The US Embassy in Mexico City urged US citizens "to avoid downtown Mexico City and surrounding areas" during the protest, noting that foreigners are prohibited by law from political activity and that "even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence."
The stakes are high. Lopez Obrador remains convinced he won the elections, has millions of extremely devoted followers, and views street protests as an effective means of pressuring the government and the courts.
"The message that he's sending is, `They wouldn't let me win,' that the umpire was unfair, that the government was unfair," political analyst Oscar Aguilar said.
While violent protests appear unlikely, Aguilar predicted that Lopez Obrador would never recognize the narrow electoral victory of conservative Felipe Calderon, of President Vicente Fox's National Action party.
"He will never concede defeat," Aguilar said. "Once the election results are certified, he will open a permanent campaign of criticizing the government."
According to final vote tallies announced on Thursday, Lopez Obrador lost to Calderon by some 244,000 votes, a margin of about 0.6 percent.
Lopez Obrador says hundreds of thousands of votes for him remain uncounted, miscounted or voided, and that a manual recount would confirm that.
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