Fox’s Party Won Vote, Court Says
Mexico’s highest electoral court ruled Wednesday that President Vicente Fox’s party won a spring mayoral election in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
Reversing an earlier decision in a two-month battle that dragged relations between Fox and the opposition to a new low, the Federal Electoral Tribunal unanimously ratified the victory for Fox’s National Action Party, or PAN.
It said that the party’s Jesus Alfredo Delgado won the May 12 race and that it found no proof of vote manipulation or irregularities. The court’s decision is not subject to appeal. The ruling was expected to spark more political bickering in the city, home to about 300 maquiladora plants that produce and assemble goods for foreign companies. Juarez is across the border from El Paso.
The opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years until Fox’s election in 2000, had charged the PAN with manipulating the vote.
Earlier this month the state electoral court, which is controlled by the PRI, agreed and threw out the election results, spawning a violent protest in front of City Hall and a blockade at one of Ciudad Juarez’s four cross-border bridges.
Delgado, who was not available for comment, is to be sworn in Saturday.
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