Mexico court to rule on president-elect

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s top electoral court will
meet on Tuesday to rule on whether the disputed July 2 election
was clean, and it is almost certain to name ruling party
conservative Felipe Calderon as president-elect.

Losing left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has
alleged widespread fraud but the court’s seven judges threw out
those claims last week.

They must still rule on whether the entire election process
was clean before giving a final vote count and declaring the
winner.

The court said on Monday the magistrates would hold a
public session at 8 a.m. (1300 GMT) on Tuesday for their final
rulings on the presidential election.

Lopez Obrador’s Party of the Democratic Revolution says
President Vicente Fox broke the law by backing Calderon with
public funds and that business leaders violated campaign
finance rules in support of the conservative candidate.

If the court accepted those arguments, it could annul the
election and call a new vote, meaning Congress would have to
pick an interim president.

But a ruling in favor of Calderon is widely considered a
formality after the court’s rulings last week, and Lopez
Obrador’s aides say he also believes the court will decide
against him.

The original election result gave Calderon a wafer-thin
victory of around 244,000 votes, or 0.58 percentage points.

Lopez Obrador insists it was rigged and says he will never
recognize his rival as president. Thousands of his supporters
have protested in central Mexico City for the last month,
setting up sprawling camps in the vast Zocalo square and on an
elegant boulevard running through the business district.