Mexico: Irregularities or Fraud? by Greg Palast

[kpete]

Irregularities or Fraud?
Published by Greg Palast July 6th, 2006 in Articles
By Matt Pascarella

Wed, 5 Jul 2006 13:36:06 -0700 (PDT)

(Mexico City) Every day at noon officials from Lopez Obrador’s party, PRD, meet at the Hotel Casa Balanca in Colonia Tabacalera for a press conference.

Yesterday marked the first of such meetings in which members of the PRD presented evidence of irregularities in the vote count as well as problems that occurred on Election Day.

Members of the press, squeezed in a small conference room, pushed party leaders to say fraud had occurred, but thus far they have maintained the line that there were “irregularities” and further investigation is needed.

According to documents distributed by PRD, around 3 million votes have yet to be counted, there were inconsistencies in the PREP, and anomalous drop-off where people showed up to vote but did not cast a vote for president.

Following the PRD press conference, IFE, the electoral commission, confirmed that, indeed, around 3 million votes have yet to be counted.

Claims of fraud will be very difficult to prove and a costly political move until IFE announces its final results. It is after that point where each candidate has 4 days to submit complaints
to the electoral commission.

Ultimately, it is the Federal Electoral Court which will hear these complaints and make a decision. All disputes regarding the presidential election, according to officials I’ve spoken with at IFE, must be resolved by August 31st.

http://www.gregpalast.com/irregularities-or-fraud#more-1445

[Sadie5]

1. Does Scalia have anything to do with the court

Is he going to coach the Federal Electoral Commission on how to steal an election?

[silverojo]

2. Why is anybody surprised?

It happened here twice...it's hardly news.

What needs to be reported is how to FIX the problem.

[ellenfl]

3. what's happening with the reports of

votes found in city dumps? has anyone heard?

ellen fl

[Peace Patriot]

4. Good luck to Calderon, governing Mexico with a .5 margin of "victory"!

If he was smart, he would get them to cough up the other 3 million missing votes, and retire with honor to his plush villas.

Lopez Obrador has far more support than these rigged numbers reflect. The vast poor population of Mexico are no fools--and they are by far the majority. Calderon's life is going to be hell. And I don't think the Mexican army will go along with heavy repression--too many poor troops. I see a General Strike coming. Democracy, self-determination and Leftist (majorityist) rule is in the future in Latin America. And it will be in Mexico, too.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Kpete, the subject line is misleading. This report is NOT by Greg Palast.

Please change it, if you still can.

[kpete]

6. So Sorry

BIG Mistake On My Part

Article Above is by By Matt Pascarella

Too Late to change...

I Meant to post this:

“Senor Blank-o” wins in Mexico
Published by Greg Palast July 6th, 2006 in Articles
By Greg Palast

And the winner in Mexico’s presidential contest is… Senor Blank-o!

The official count of the ruling party is: 36.38% for the ruling party and 35.34% for the challenger.

Or, to put names and numbers to it: The Bush-o-philiac candidate, Felipe Calderon, collected 402,000 more votes than Bush-bashed Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. But the big winner was Mr. Blank — the 827,000 ballots without a mark for president.


I smell something rotten… eau d’Ohio, vintage 2004. In that state, as in Mexico this week, the presidential “winner,” George Bush, had victory margin smaller than the combined “undercount” (blank ballots) and rejected and mangled ballots.

Blank ballots are rarely random — in the USA, nearly 88% were cast in 2004, notably, in minority areas, the result of bad voting machines. That is, Democrats’ ballots “spoil” and “blank out” a heck of a lot more often than Republican ballots. What about in Mexico?

I intend to find out. As soon as I saw the “official” vote count, I booked a plane to Mexico City. I’ll be there to tomorrow to join our investigators on the ground — and to fill in the blanks.
http://www.gregpalast.com/senor-blank-o-wins-in-mexico