Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who election authorities projected as the runner-up in Sunday’s presidential vote, said Monday that he was awaiting the official election results, and prepared to contest them before judicial authorities if they didn’t turn out in his favor.
“The election was plagued by irregularities before, during and after the process,” said Lopez Obrador.
The Democratic Revolution Party candidate’s declarations echoed comments he made in 2006, when election authorities said the leftist candidate narrowly lost the presidential race to Felipe Calderon. Lopez Obrador claimed election fraud and never conceded, referring to himself afterward as “the legitimate president of Mexico.”
His supporters protested nationwide. In Mexico City, they staged sit-ins and blockades.
On Monday, Lopez Obrador called on his supporters to wait for the official results. The Federal Election Institute’s verification of individual poll results begins Wednesday.
Earlier, Peña Nieto, who election authorities projected as the winner of Sunday’s presidential vote, told CNN en Español he was ready to work across party lines to build a better Mexico.
“We have to be constructive and put aside our differences, which are only for competitions and electoral contests,” Peña Nieto said Monday. “Yesterday I indicated that (after) this tense and divisive atmosphere, which is natural in all democratic contests, we have to turn the page and move on to enter another chapter, another moment in our political lives, with a willingness and spirit that are constructive and purposeful.”
A quick count based on samples from polling stations throughout the country gave Peña Nieto the lead, with between 37.93% and 38.55% of votes, the Federal Election Institute said late Sunday night.
On Monday, the presumed president-elect said he had been receiving congratulatory phone calls and messages from world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama.
Peña Nieto said he was unfazed by the fact that more than 50% of Mexicans had not voted for him.
“We, fortunately, live in democratic conditions with three predominant political forces, and this makes it very hard for any party to have an absolute majority,” he told CNN en Español.
The projected victory for Peña Nieto marks a triumphant return to power for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which lost its grip on Mexico’s presidency to the conservative National Action Party in 2000. (CNN)