Calderon wins disputed Mexico vote

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A final count gave conservative Felipe Calderon a razor-thin victory Thursday in Mexico's presidential election after four days of uncertainty.

Leftist rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador claimed that there were irregularities in the vote count and vowed to fight the results in court. He called for a demonstration by his supporters Saturday in Mexico City, where he was the popular mayor before seeking the presidency.

"There's no joy, certainly, because they know very well what they did," Lopez Obrador said of the rival camp. Both candidates had claimed victory after Sunday's vote.

After an around-the-clock review of local election officials' ballot tally sheets that began Wednesday morning, Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute issued final results Thursday afternoon.

Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, won 35.89 percent of the vote compared with 35.31 percent for Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolutionary Party.

The difference between the two candidates was just 0.58 percent, or about 244,000 votes out of about 42 million cast, based on the institute's figures.

Meanwhile, the Institutional Revolutionary Party -- which ruled Mexico as a one-party fiefdom for 71 years before being pushed from power by President Vicente Fox in 2000 -- saw its fortunes continue to plunge.

PRI's presidential candidate, Roberto Madrazo, captured just 22 percent of the vote. The party lost its dominance in Congress in previous elections.

Lopez Obrador has four days to appeal Calderon's victory to the Federal Electoral Tribunal, which he has said he will do.

"We are always going to act in a responsible manner but, at the same time, we have to defend the citizens' will," Lopez Obrador said, according to The Associated Press.

"We are going to the Federal Electoral Tribunal with the same demand -- that the votes be counted -- because we cannot accept these results."

But Calderon, 43, was already contacting other parties to put together a "unity government," the AP reported.

The tribunal has until August 23 to review any challenge and until September 6 to certify a winner. The new president takes office in December.

George Grayson, a professor of Latin American politics at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, said he believes the certification will come before the deadline to minimize the "uncertainty" in economic markets.

"I think it's fair to say that Felipe Calderon is the president-elect of Mexico," he said. (CNN Access)

Calderon, a Harvard-educated economist, favors free market economics and free trade.

"I want to establish a very constructive relationship without bowing my head and lowering my eyes to the Americans," Calderon said in an interview with the news agency.

He served as president of the National Action Party -- known by its Spanish acronym, PAN -- and was energy minister in Fox's government before resigning to seek the presidency.

Calderon won PAN's presidential nomination over a rival candidate backed by Fox, who was constitutionally barred from seeking another term.

Sharp divisions revealed

If Calderon's victory is certified by the electoral tribunal, he will confront the same daunting obstacle Fox faced -- a Congress in which opposition parties hold a majority of seats.

However, as a result of Sunday's elections, PAN will now hold the largest number of seats in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, an advantage Fox did not enjoy.

Lopez Obrador, 52, is a populist who favors more spending on social programs for the poor and was seen as less friendly toward the United States.

He was well ahead in polls as the campaign began. However, Calderon managed to chip away at Lopez Obrador's lead by likening him to another Latin American populist, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez -- a comparison rejected by Lopez Obrador.

The election illustrated some of the sharp economic divisions in Mexican society.

Calderon had strong support among business leaders and wealthier Mexicans. Lopez Obrador's base was among the country's poor, who rallied around him at his public appearances. Some of his ardent supporters wept Thursday when they learned Calderon had taken the lead.

A preliminary count after Sunday's vote showed Calderon slightly ahead, but the race was so close that election officials said they could not declare a winner until reviewing ballot tallies from across the country.

For most of the day Wednesday, as the recount progressed, Lopez Obrador held the lead. But when results started to come in from PAN strongholds in northern Mexico, his lead narrowed, and Calderon moved ahead for good early Thursday morning.

Regardless of the court challenge's outcome, Mexican-U.S. relations will be dominated, as in the recent past, by the issues of immigration, trade, drug trafficking, the war on terror and security along the 2,000-mile border separating the North American neighbors.

About 85 percent of the illegal immigrants streaming into the United States are from Mexico, which is America's third-largest trading partner.

Grayson, the professor, said "the real imperative" for the Calderon administration will be "starting to break the bottlenecks in their own economy."

"It is up to Mexico to do some trust busting so it can be more competitive," he said.

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