AP Interview: Leftist candidate says he's lost faith in electoral authorities

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• published: 24 Jul 2015
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1. Various of Obrador 2. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico's leftist presidential candidate: "In the case of the IFE (Federal Electoral Institute), it is an institution that should organise the election fairly. However, the people in charge or the representatives from that institution behaved as instigators." 3. Cutaway 4. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico's leftist presidential candidate: "Despite the inequality in the electoral process, despite the president's intervention, despite the use of government resources to benefit the National Action Parties' candidate, despite the illegal intervention of the Coordinating Business Council in favour of the National Action Party Candidate, despite the dirty war, despite the fact it wasn't fair the way they handled the media, despite all of that, if votes are counted we won." 5. Cutaway 6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico's leftist presidential candidate: "Sometimes, wrong decisions are made abroad due to lack of information. For example, the congratulations expressed from foreign governments to the right wing candidate. Once it was known that the counting process was just about to begin and that it was up to the electoral tribunal to decide, who was the elected candidate? Some governments rectified their initial congratulations, that was the case of the US government and Spain and some others, but basically those two." 7. Obrador preparing to leave STORYLINE: Mexico's leftist presidential candidate said on Thursday he has lost faith in Mexico's main electoral agency, and doesn't want them overseeing the national recount he is demanding. In an interview with The Associated Press, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Mexico's widely respected Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, had abandoned its autonomous role and taken become a tool of the ruling party. "The people in charge or the representatives from that institution behaved as instigators," he said. "If votes are counted we won," he added. An official IFE count gave conservative Felipe Calderon a less than one percent advantage in the July 2 elections. Lopez Obrador is disputing that result in Mexico's top electoral court, in a nearly 900-page complaint demanding that the Federal Electoral Court order a ballot-by-ballot recount. Electoral officials and President Vicente Fox's National Action Party have argued that, under Mexican law, officials can only recount results from a polling place if a party challenges them and the court finds evidence of irregularities or fraud. Lopez Obrador's party has presented challenges for about 40 percent of the polling places. Obrador insisted on Thursday that the electoral court has the authority to order a full recount. If a recount is ordered, he said he would prefer to see independent observers brought in to carry out the count, instead of IFE. Lopez Obrador alleges that vote totals were mis-tallied and even falsified in favour of Calderon. On Thursday, he said his campaign had found mathematical errors in the reports of at least 72,000 polling places. He pledged to continue his fight on behalf of his supporters, who are expected to fill Mexico City's main plaza on Sunday, the third mass demonstration he has held since the election. He blamed Mexico's ruling elite for his loss and said the poor, who make up his main base of support, would continue to fight for him. Lopez Obrador promised to "govern for all, but for the poor first," saying he would create government pensions and subsidies for the elderly, single mothers and millions of others struggling to make a living. Near-daily protests continued on Thursday, with Lopez Obrador supporters protesting outside Mexico's stock market. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/23601a4f5c1dbd60c30e8fe97eb7cad8 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork