No end seen to Mexican vote dispute

MEXICO CITY - Mexican electoral officials, monitored by judges, today painstakingly tallied votes from last month's presidential election in a partial recount that appeared unlikely to resolve a dispute over fraud claims.

Conservative Felipe Calderon, who won the July 2 vote by a tiny margin, said the recount of votes from 9 per cent of polling stations was proving he won the election fairly.

But the official result of the new count was unlikely to be known until the weekend, and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would not be satisfied until all 41 million votes cast are tallied again.

Mexico has been split, often along class lines, by the election, which pitted pro-US Calderon against anti-poverty crusader Lopez Obrador.

Calderon, a lawyer who was educated at Harvard, said this week's recount -- ordered by a court -- of some 4 million votes in the most seriously disputed electoral districts confirmed the original result.

"The recount being carried out today shows that the people counted the votes properly on July 2," Calderon told business executives.

But Lopez Obrador said the recount was yielding additional votes for him.

"Just with the review they are doing, already serious, grave irregularities are being shown," he told supporters in Mexico City's central square. "The fraud is being proven."

Mexico's top electoral court last weekend refused a request from the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution to recount all the votes.

Thousands of Lopez Obrador's supporters have crippled the capital's centre with huge sit-ins to protest what they say was tampering with the vote result. Leftists blocked access to the main offices of foreign banks in Mexico yesterday.

"The damage being done by the protests in Mexico City proves that not only did the people count properly on July 2 but they also made the right choice for president," Calderon said.

A small group of protesters demonstrated outside an annex of the Finance Ministry but failed to dissuade employees from entering the building.

About 100 demonstrators gave up on an attempt to march on the city's airport when police there went on alert.

Conservatives say the fact that some 1 million private citizens staffed polling stations on election day helped avoid vote rigging by any one party. European Union observers say there was no major fraud.

Calderon, a former energy minister, won the voting by 0.58 of a percentage point, or 244,000 votes, but the left says electoral officials deliberately counted fewer votes for Lopez Obrador and also stole ballot papers.

Initial results from the recount showed Lopez Obrador picking up handfuls of votes in some electoral districts, national media said, but it was unclear if the overall pattern favoured him.

Ricardo Monreal, a top legal aide to Lopez Obrador, said the leftist would not recognise the partial recount result as definitive.

"We said we'd take part (in the recount), although unwillingly, but there is no way we will recognise the election result based on this," he said.

Lopez Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico City, says he will lift millions of people out of poverty if he becomes president on December 1.

Favoured by financial markets, Calderon promises more of the economic stability earned under conservative President Vicente Fox.

The court which ordered the recount must resolve all disputes surrounding the election by the end of the month and announce the president-elect by September 6.

- REUTERS