Does México have its next president? I hope so. Felipe Calderón (my candidate of choice) seems to have won the election. The first official count was completed yesterday and Calderón won by .58% (not much). He also won in the initial unofficial count.
Obredor is calling for another count, saying that the first count was unjust. I don’t mind a recount. I think that is the prudent thing to do when it is this close. And, maybe Obredor will come out the leader the next count (which will require at least 1 more count). But, crying that the count was unfair, illegal and whatever other slanderous remark you can add, is uncalled for. Obredor is not helping his cause by acting like a 10 year old in school. He should demand a recount because it is a close election, not because he thinks it was handled illegally.
I read an article this morning saying that the election was “stolen” by Calderón. As if he did something shady to make it happen. What is shady is that the PRI party stayed in power for 71 years in México. It was a dictatorship in which no one, that I have ever met anyway, felt held fair elections until the year 2000. At which time President Vicente Fox won. By the way, that party only won 22% of this year’s votes. Maybe the people really did not like the dictatorial rule by the PRI.
The article I read was comparing this election in México to the 2000 US Presidential election in which Bush beat Al Gore. Of course everyone remembers the recounts over and over. Which, by the way, Bush won every time. This article states: “Lopez Obrador and his backers understand full well that they must now use all means necessary to reverse this hijacking of democracy. Progressives in the United States and across the world must lend their voices to Lopez Obrador’s cause, and national, state and local governments should be pushed to pass resolutions demanding that the Mexican government launch an internationally-supervised recount.”
I am not at all against a recount. But don’t do it because you have to whine and say things are illegal (who in their right mind thinks the political landscape in México is completely legal?). Do it because you want to see a fair election. But, of course, make sure the re-count is done in a legal manner as well.