MEXICO: Obrador ballots found in public dump; wants full recount; up to 3 mil "thrown out"
author: update
Supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador show electoral ballots that were found in a public dump. One of Obrador's aides, Claudia Sheinbaum, went on to claim that their party had found "very grave inconsistencies" in 50,000 polling booths, including 18,646 in which there were more votes cast than registered voters.
Obrador calls Mexican elections fradulent, and wants a full recount. Leonel Cota, president of Obrador's PRD party, vowed to "launch a battle for the legitimacy of the election," and a COALITION of the PRD AND TWO OTHER parties held a press conference and issued a statement.... --- Mexico's review of 41 million votes cast in Sunday's disputed presidential election started on Wednesday. Soon, media trumpeted unofficial gap between the two leading candidates, Calderon [a Bush-linked internationalist neofascist, straight out of the Mexican Energy [oil] Department, where he was once Secretary]...the other, Obregon, a [presumably nationalist] leftist, narrowed as a record of fraud increasingly mounted.
Thanks to Obrador's supporters, of whom many are poor ruralites and urbanites who have seen their standard of living fall more by NAFTA and neoliberalist policies, they are eager to see competitive democracy take root in Mexico. This election is seen as a vote for or against more neoliberalist policies. Obrador's supporters (ACROSS SEVERAL PARTIES) could take to the streets to defend democratic legality against an internationalist fascist Bush-linked candidate Calderon's coup. Such foreign interference in Mexican elections has already been noted: Mexican arrests of Bush family linked Choice-Point election corporation from the U.S., which was illegally found in possession of Mexican voter rolls, according to Greg Palast.
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Summary continues:
THERE IS VERY WELCOME UNEASE (as it keeps their feet to the fire) surrounding popular anger and opposition to a fraudulent presidential election (since the same party lost an election with Cardenas to vote fraud due to "unforseen computer voting glitches" in 1988.
Preliminary results from Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) gave Bush-linked Felipe Calderon, a former energy secretary and the candidate of the ruling National Action Party (PAN), a 1 per cent or 402,000-vote lead over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, ....On Tuesday, elections officials said 3 million ballots that Lopez Obrador had described as "missing" had not been counted because of irregularities. The officials said those votes - which would reduce Calderon's [non-official] lead to 0.64 percent - will be included in the overall count if [the opposing party dominated elections committee finds they are] deemed valid.....But last night, officials from the IFE revealed that if 2.6 million votes showing "inconsistencies" such as poor handwriting were included in the count, the gap would close to just 257,000 votes, or 0.6 per cent. [Others seemingly thrown in the trash.] As many as 2 million further votes are reported not to have been counted at all. Both candidates declared victory in the election on Sunday night and neither has backed down.
Señor Lopez Obrador has increased the pressure on Mexico's electoral authorities by alleging that supporters of Señor Calderon's party have counted votes twice in some districts and ignored ballots in others. "The stability of the country is at stake," he said this morning at a news conference as officials started to open ballot boxes in Mexico's 138,000 polling stations, looking for suspicious totals. "Make the review thorough so all will be satisfied, so we can end this process cleanly." One of Señor Lopez Obrador's aides, Claudia Sheinbaum, went on to claim that his Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) had found "very grave inconsistencies" in 50,000 polling booths, including 18,646 in which there were more votes cast than registered voters.
Señor Lopez Obrador has repeatedly referred to Mexico's indifferent record of democratic elections to justify his suspicions of the present contest.
[His party] The PRD was famously cheated of the presidency in 1988, when its leader, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, who was thought to have won the popular vote, was denied by a series of computer crashes.
[meanwhile the Orwellian media of the world sails out disinformation: World Magazine Blog, IL :"Mexico's apparently clean election....Mr. Calderón's numbers jibe with those of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) and it seems almost certain that he won."]
1.
Mexico presidential candidate calls for full recount of ballots in close race
Joe Shaulis  http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/staff/ at 9:14 AM ET
[JURIST] Claiming that some ballots were counted twice and others not at all because of fraud, Mexico's Democratic Revolution Party http://www.prd.org.mx/ (PRD) [party website, in Spanish] is demanding a full recount of votes in last weekend's presidential election. Preliminary results http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/07/mexico-awaits-legal-count-of.php [JURIST report] showed the PRD's candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador http://http://www.lopez-obrador.com.mx/ [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Manuel_L%C3%B3pez_Obrador], trailing Felipe Calderon http://www.felipe-calderon.org/ [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Action_Party_%28Mexico%29], of the conservative National Action Party http://ww1.pan.org.mx/eleccion2006/index.html (PAN) [party website], by about 1 percent of the 41 million votes counted. Leonel Cota, president of the PRD, vowed on Tuesday to "launch a battle for the legitimacy of the election," and a coalition of the PRD and two other parties held a press conference http://www.prd.org.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=453&Itemid=37 [transcript, in Spanish] and issued a statement http://www.prd.org.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=452&Itemid=37 [text, in Spanish] that questioned the system used to compile the preliminary results, known as PREP http://www.ife.org.mx/prep2006/prep.htm#introduccion [official backgrounder]. The president of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute http://www.prd.org.mx/ (PRD) [party website, in Spanish] is demanding a full recount of votes in last weekend's presidential election. Preliminary results http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/07/mexico-awaits-legal-count-of.php [JURIST report] showed the PRD's candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador http://http://www.lopez-obrador.com.mx/ [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Manuel_L%C3%B3pez_Obrador], trailing Felipe Calderon http://www.felipe-calderon.org/ [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Action_Party_%28Mexico%29], of the conservative National Action Party http://ww1.pan.org.mx/eleccion2006/index.html (PAN) [party website], by about 1 percent of the 41 million votes counted. Leonel Cota, president of the PRD, vowed on Tuesday to "launch a battle for the legitimacy of the election," and a coalition of the PRD and two other parties held a press conference http://www.prd.org.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=453&Itemid=37 [transcript, in Spanish] and issued a statement http://www.prd.org.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=452&Itemid=37 [text, in Spanish] that questioned the system used to compile the preliminary results, known as PREP http://www.ife.org.mx/prep2006/prep.htm#introduccion [official backgrounder]. The president of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute link to www.ife.org.mx [PDF text, in Spanish] permit a manual recount only if the ballot packages have been unsealed or if the initial tallies are faulty.
Also on Tuesday, elections officials said that 3 million ballots that Lopez Obrador had described as "missing" had not been counted because of irregularities.
The officials said those votes - which would reduce Calderon's lead to 0.64 percent - will be included in the overall count if deemed valid.
Local election officials were to count remaining valid ballots http://www.ife.org.mx/comunicados/137.htm [IFE press release] and review the initial tally beginning on Wednesday. AP has more http://www.ife.org.mx/comunicados/137.htm [IFE press release] and review the initial tally beginning on Wednesday. AP has more link to apnews.myway.com, in Spanish.
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http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/07/mexico-presidential-candidate-calls.php
2.
Supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador show electoral ballots that were found in a public dump (EPA)
Mexico begins high pressure election recount
By Sam Knight and agencies
Mexico began a tortuous review of the more than 41 million votes cast in Sunday's disputed presidential election today, as the gap between the two leading candidates, one a [Bush-linked internationalist/neofascist] conservative, the other a [nationalist] leftist, appeared to narrow.
Preliminary results from Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) gave Felipe Calderon, a former energy secretary and the candidate of the ruling National Action Party (PAN), a 1 per cent or 402,000-vote lead over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico who has promised the redress the gap between the rich and the poor.
But last night, officials from the IFE revealed that if 2.6 million votes showing "inconsistencies" such as poor handwriting were included in the count, the gap would close to just 257,000 votes, or 0.6 per cent. As many as 2 million further votes are reported not to have been counted at all.
Both candidates declared victory in the election on Sunday night and neither has backed down.
As the razor-thin difference between the totals has become even sharper, Señor Lopez Obrador has increased the pressure on Mexico's electoral authorities by alleging that supporters of Señor Calderon's party have counted votes twice in some districts and ignored ballots in others.
"The stability of the country is at stake," he said this morning at a news conference as officials started to open ballot boxes in Mexico's 138,000 polling stations, looking for suspicious totals. "Make the review thorough so all will be satisfied, so we can end this process cleanly."
One of Señor Lopez Obrador's aides, Claudia Sheinbaum, went on to claim that his Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) had found "very grave inconsistencies" in 50,000 polling booths, including 18,646 in which there were more votes cast than registered voters.
The election review is expected to deliver a definitive result by Sunday, but legal challenges could delay any resolution for weeks or months. [Mexico swears in its next president officially months from now anyway, Dec. 1, I belive.] Bitterly contested parliamentary elections have already prevented either party from winning a clear majority in Mexico's legislature.
The unease surrounding the count has been exacerbated by fears that Señor Lopez Obrador's fervent supporters, many of whom are poor, urban and eager to see the wholesale reform of Mexico's public services, could take to the streets. The peso has wobbled back and forth against the dollar as the likelihood of a Calderon government, thought to be more favourable to business, has fluctuated.
Señor Lopez Obrador has repeatedly referred to Mexico's indifferent record of democratic elections to justify his suspicions of the present contest. The PRD was famously cheated of the presidency in 1988, when its leader, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, who was thought to have won the popular vote, was denied by a series of computer crashes.
"Such a close race is a nightmare scenario," said Ted Lewis, an election observer for the San Francisco-based Global Exchange. "If the ruling party wins by a hair, a lot of people will jump to the conclusion that something is amiss."
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2257381,00.html
3.
...
Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) is legally independent of the government [though filled with partisan supporters?] , while in the US, partisan state officials tend to oversee the system -- something that contributed to controversy [and systemic vote fraud in many U.S. states] over the 2000 presidential election in Florida. [even though privately owned Republican allied vote machines were far more to blame.]
The Institute also provides taxpayer financing for political campaigns based on their vote totals in past races, an effort to even the playing field. Mexico sharply limits private campaign contributions.
Paired with the Institute is an independent Federal Electoral Tribunal, known by its initials as Trife, whose word on all election disputes is final.....The IFE's budget for this year was about 13 billion pesos (US$1.1 billion).
The legal count starts [Wednesday], when district councils add up the ballot box reports. Actual ballots are re-counted only if the local reports are illegible or incoherent or if the package has been tampered with. By law, the councils cannot even stop to sleep before issuing their reports.
Parties have until tomorrow to allege irregularities at polling places and until early next week to dispute district counts. Those challenges ultimately go to the Trife, which has sometimes thrown out the results of congressional or gubernatorial contests, but which has never seen so tight a presidential race.
Grayson said the decision "is bound to wind up in the Trife," which has until Sept. 6 to certify the presidential winner. The new president takes office on Dec. 1.
But Grayson said the rules for the tribunal's decision are vague: "It's going to be somewhat like the US election in 2000, where you have the Supreme Court justices voting without clear guidelines."
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http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/07/05/2003317384
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election fraud | human & civil rights
Stealing Mexico - Bush Team Helps 'Floridize' Mexican Presidential Election
author: Greg Palast
George Bush's operatives have plans to jigger with the upcoming elections. I'm not talking about the November '06 vote in the USA (though they have plans for that, too). I'm talking about the election this Sunday in Mexico for their Presidency.
It begins with an FBI document marked, "Counterterrorism" and "Foreign Intelligence Collection" and "Secret." Date: "9/17/2001," six days after the attack on the World Trade towers. It's nice to know the feds got right on the ball, if a little late.
What does this have to do with jiggering Mexico's election? Hold that thought.
This document is what's called a "guidance" memo for using a private contractor to provide databases on dangerous foreigners. Good idea. We know the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf Emirates. So you'd think the "Intelligence Collection" would be aimed at getting info on the guys in the Gulf.
No so. When we received the document, we obtained as well its classified appendix. The target nations for "foreign counterterrorism investigation" were nowhere near the Persian Gulf. Every one was in Latin America -- Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico and a handful of others. See one of the documents yourself.
Latin America?! Was there a terror cell about to cross into San Diego with exploding enchiladas?
All the target nations had one thing in common besides a lack of terrorists: each had a left-leaning presidential candidate or a left-leaning president in office. In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez, bete noir of the Bush Administration, was facing a recall vote. In Mexico, the anti-Bush Mayor of Mexico City, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was (and is) leading the race for the Presidency.
Most provocative is the contractor to whom this no-bid contract was handed: ChoicePoint Inc. of Alpharetta, Georgia. ChoicePoint is the database company that created a list for Governor Jeb Bush of Florida of voters to scrub from voter rolls before the 2000 election. ChoicePoint's list (94,000 names in all) contained few felons. Most of those on the list were guilty of no crime except Voting While Black. The disenfranchisement of these voters cost Al Gore the presidency.
Having chosen our President for us, our President's men chose ChoicePoint for this sweet War on Terror database gathering. The use of the Venezuela's and Mexico's voter registry files to fight terror is not visible -- but the use of the lists to manipulate elections is as obvious as the make-up on Katherine Harris' cheeks.
In Venezuela, leading up to the August 2004 vote on whether to re-call President Chavez, I saw his opposition pouring over the voter rolls in laptops, claiming the right to challenge voters as Jeb's crew did to voters in Florida. It turns out this operation was partly funded by the International Republican Institute of Washington, an arm of the GOP. Where did they get the voter info?
In that case, access to Venezuela's voter rolls didn't help the Republican-assisted drive against Chavez, who won by a crushing plurality.
In Mexico this Sunday, we can expect to see the same: challenges of Obrador voters in a race, the polls say, is too close to call. Not that Mexico's rulers need lessons from the Bush Administration on how to mess with elections.
In 1988, the candidate for Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PDR), who opinion polls showed as a certain winner, somehow came up short against the incumbent party of the ruling elite. Some of the electoral tricks were far from subtle. In the state of Guerrero, the PDR was leading on official tally sheets by 359,369. Oddly, the official final count was 309,202 for the ruling party, only182,874 for the PDR. Challenging the vote would have been dangerous. Two top officials of Obrador's party were assassinated during the campaign.
Crucial to the surprise victory of the ruling party was the introduction of computer voting machines and the centralization of voter databases. Observer Andrew Reding of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs reported that ruling party operatives had special access codes denied the opposition.
Whether the US "War on Terror" lists will find a use in Sunday's election, we cannot know. But the use of American government resources to interfere in south-of-the-border campaigns is an open secret. The GOP's International Republican Institute has run training sessions for the PAN youth wing, funded by US taxpayers through the "National Endowment for Democracy."
Foreign -- that is, American -- interference in political campaigns is a crime. That didn't stop Team Bush. However, when the theft of its citizen files was discovered, Argentina threatened to arrest ChoicePoint contractors until the company returned the tapes -- and Mexico's attorney general did in fact arrest the ChoicePoint data thieves to avoid his party's looking too much the stooge of its Washington patron. Whether George Bush gave back his copy, no one will say.
Wholesale theft is expected on Sunday in forms both subtle and brutal. How the US' purloined "counterterrorism" lists will be used, we don't know. We are certain however, that the Administration did not siphon off these Latin voter files to fight a War on Terror. It appears, rather, part of the Bush Administration's and GOP's hemispheric War on Democracy -- along a battle line which runs from Florida to Ohio to Juarez.
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For as-it-happens reporting on the Mexican election, check
Get your copy of Palast's new book, Armed Madhouse, at
Special thanks to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington DC, which received and passed on to our team the FBI ChoicePoint files and other foreign intelligence documentation.
found at
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