Recount Demanded

last updated 8 January 2015

Mexico City

Defeated leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador led a huge throng of demonstrators through Mexico’s capital last week, demanding a recount of all 41 million votes cast in this month’s presidential election. Obrador’s opponent, conservative Felipe Calderón, prevailed by 244,000 votes in the initial count. But Obrador has charged Calderón’s ruling party with campaign irregularities that cost Obrador more than 1 million votes. “We cannot accept that a privileged group uses illegal means, money, and tricks to impose an illegitimate vote,” Obrador told a boisterous crowd estimated at 700,000. Mexico’s election tribunal is scheduled to rule on Obrador’s petition by the end of July.