Pat in Mexican

Two candidates consider themselves presidents

Mexico's presidential elections on Sunday ended in stalemate. According to preliminary data, right-wing representative Felipe Calderon, 43, a candidate from the ruling conservative National Action Party (PAN) and former energy minister, is coming out on top. He was ahead of the candidate from the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PDR), the former mayor of Mexico City, 52-year-old Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was leading in opinion polls on the eve of the vote. Although the vote count has not yet been completed, both candidates are already celebrating their victory.

“I thank the people of Mexico for their support and let me know that we won by at least 500,000 votes,” Obrador said. According to his data, he was ahead of his competitor by 1.3%. “According to the calculations of the Federal Electoral Institute (FII), we won the elections with a gap of 2.5-4%,” Calderon said. Both declarations were made on television and radio on Sunday just three hours after polls closed. A couple of hours later, the head of the FII, Luis Carlos Ugalde, called the contenders to account and postponed the announcement of the official results until Wednesday: “In such a short time, it is impossible to count the ballots from the country’s 7,281 polling stations. The information we have is not enough to declare a winner." Current President Vicente Fox has assured Mexicans that “every vote they have will be counted and counted.”

Both candidates rule out the possibility of fraud. Based on the results of counting 97.1% of the votes, Calderon is trusted by 36.38% of voters, and his opponent Obrador is trusted by only 35.40%. The leader of the oldest Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Roberto Madrazo, also participated in the presidential campaign, representing the political center as opposed to the left and right choices. According to preliminary data, 26.99% of Mexicans voted for him.

Deputy Director of the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vadim Teperman noted to Vremya Novostey that all preliminary polls pointed to Obrador's advantage, although this advantage was insignificant and was approaching a statistical error. “The situation changed during the election campaign. By calling Obrador “the second Chavez,” Calderon frightened the electorate and thereby ensured the rapid advance of the right in both houses of parliament. Previously, the conservatives were the third party there, but now they are ahead of the PDR and PRI, increasing their representation by 50 percent.” According to our interlocutor, it is more correct to compare Obrador with Brazilian President Lula Da Silva, and not with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, since Obrador “built his campaign on demonstrating commitment to liberal values.”

The White House would prefer that the right remain in power in Mexico, but the arrival of the left led by Obrador would not frighten them. “Mexico will not follow the path of Peru, where the presidential vote was accompanied by unrest. She is not so poor and radical for this. The worst thing that can happen in the country now is that one of the parties will demand a recount of votes,” Vadim Teperman told VN.

Alexandra PUSHKAR