Partial Recount in Mexico; "Leftist" Candidate Promises Civil Disobedience

Mexicans, surprisingly, won't take what they perceive as a fraudulent election lying down (compared to "We just want to go Christmas shopping in peace" Americans in the Florida 2000 presidential debacle).

From The Times:

As the courts completed a partial recount of votes in last month’s presidential election, the beleaguered leftist candidate vowed Sunday to keep up a campaign of civil disobedience against the government for years, if necessary, to protest what he sees as a fraudulent election.

Speaking at a rally in the capital’s central square, the candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who champions the cause of the poor, declared, “The object of our movement is to save democracy and make the Constitution mean something.”

“We are prepared to resist for whatever time is necessary, even for years, if the circumstances merit it,” he added. “Here and now begins a new chapter in the life of Mexico. The simulated republic is finished.”

Last month, the official tally by the Federal Electoral Commission showed that Felipe Calderón, the conservative candidate, from President Vicente Fox’s National Action Party, had won a narrow victory — 243,000 votes of 41 million cast.