Partial Recount Begins in Mexico

Election officials Wednesday began recounting ballots from nearly 12,000 polling stations in last month’s presidential vote as supporters of runner-up Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador expanded their civil disobedience campaign, blockading three bank buildings.

The partial recount was ordered Saturday by the seven-judge Federal Electoral Tribunal, which has the final say over election matters. The tribunal must declare a new president within a month or throw out the results of the July 2 vote.

Lopez Obrador and his lawyers filed appeals with the tribunal shortly after the vote, alleging that errors and fraud steered the election to Felipe Calderon, who won by less than a percentage point. Lopez Obrador has since waged a campaign of civil disobedience to press his demand for a national recount.

In its decision Saturday, the tribunal appeared to close the door on a full recount, with justices saying the law allowed the recounting of ballots only at polling stations that appeared to have made arithmetic errors or shown other irregularities.

Lopez Obrador so far has offered no proof of fraud.

The partial recount, which must be completed by Sunday, will require opening ballot boxes from 11,893 polling stations, about 9% of the total, and will involve millions of votes. All the polling stations were won by Calderon, and few believe the recount will show much variance from the current national tally.

Calderon’s lead is 244,000 votes out of 41 million cast.

The recount is being conducted by election officials, along with a presiding judge and representatives of Calderon’s National Action Party and Lopez Obrador’s Democratic Revolution Party.

Several thousand Lopez Obrador supporters have blockaded the capital’s main boulevard and set up camp in the central square for 10 days to demand a full recount. At a rally Tuesday, Lopez Obrador said Calderon and his party “didn’t win the election and they know it.”

On Tuesday morning, protesters blocked toll booths on the main roads connecting the capital with the rest of the country, waving through thousands of motorists for free.

On Wednesday, they surrounded the entrance to corporate offices of Bancomer, Banamex and HSBC for several hours before dispersing.