Leftist candidate rejects Mexico results as 'fraudulent'

MEXICO CITY: The runner-up in Mexico's presidential election late Monday rejected the "fraudulent" victory of rival Enrique Pena Nieto, raising the specter of protests that rocked Mexico City when he lost six years ago.

When Lopez Obrador lost the 2006 presidential election by less than one percent he claimed fraud, and organized mass protests that virtually paralyzed Mexico City for more than a month.

The first official results from Sunday's vote showed Lopez Obrador from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) with 31 percent of the vote against 38 percent for Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) -- a much wider margin than six years ago.

"We cannot accept a fraudulent result, nobody can accept that," Lopez Obrador said at a press conference, decrying Sunday's vote as a "filthy ... national embarrassment."

The PRI was synonymous with the Mexican state as it governed for seven decades until 2000 using a mixture of pervasive patronage, selective repression, rigged elections and widespread bribery.

Lopez Obrador claimed the PRI, through its national party and governors, spent millions of pesos buying votes. He also charged that the news media heavily favored PRI candidates and that the party shattered campaign spending limits.

"We will provide evidence for these claims and will file appropriate legal action," said Lopez Obrador, emphasizing that he and his supporters will first scrutinize the balloting information with election officials.

He was coy about whether he would call for protests like in 2006. "We're going to wait," he told reporters.

Pena Nieto earlier said today's PRI was a party that respected democracy.

"There is no return to the past. This PRI that is coming into office has proven its democratic conviction," the 45 year-old virtual president told foreign reporters.

It seemed inconceivable 12 years ago that the PRI would be back in power soon, if ever. But after a spiraling drug war with Mexico's powerful cartels in which more than 50,000 people have died during the presidency of Felipe Calderon, from the conservative National Action Party (PAN), handed the PRI a new chance to prove itself.