MEXICO: Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) candidate Manuel Lopez Obrador rallies thousands of supporters in the central Mexican city of Pachuca, Hidalgo state

Record ID: 213738

  • Title: MEXICO: Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) candidate Manuel Lopez Obrador rallies thousands of supporters in the central Mexican city of Pachuca, Hidalgo state
  • Date: 26th June 2012
  • Summary: PACHUCA, HIDALGO, MEXICO (JUNE 25, 2012) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF PARTY OF DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION RALLY IN PACHUCA, HIDALGO STATE MAN WAVING FLAGS AT RALLY GENERAL VIEW OF RALLY MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR WALKING THROUGH CROWD AT RALLY
  • Embargoed: 11th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEEEO14M3QV7CCE25969YPEYXI
  • Story Text: With just six days until voters go to the polls, Mexican presidential candidate Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) rallied thousands of supporters in the city of Pachuca on Monday (June 25).
    Fuelled by a burst of student-led opposition to front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Lopez Obrador saw a poll rally in late May, with one showing him just four percentage points adrift of his rival.
    As the July 1 vote nears, a survey in the Mexico City daily Reforma shows Lopez Obrador in second place with 30 percent, with Pena Nieto's support base at 42 percent. The ruling National Action Party (PAN) candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota languishes in third place with 24 percent.
    At his rally in Pachuca, Lopez Obrador thanked young people for their participation in the election campaign, saying they helped weaken Pena Nieto's position while strengthening his own.
    "A movement was created, that arrived like a wake-up, that came to clean the consciousness. The movement of the young people. Long live young people. Long live students. From there, everything began to precipitate. Pena (PRI candidate Enrique Pena Nieto) began to fall. He's falling, and we are on our way up," he said.
    The May surge in support for Lopez Obrador drew on a flurry of youth activism against Pena Nieto and the PRI, whose 71-year rule was tainted by cronyism, corruption and authoritarianism. The PAN ended the PRI's hold on power in an election in 2000.
    The most prominent student group 'Yo soy 132' (I am 132), helped to bring out tens of thousands of protesters against Pena Nieto during the campaign, but has said it won't mobilize more demonstrations unless it suspects fraud.
    On Monday, Lopez Obrador accused his competitors of bribing voters out of desperation.
    "In these last few days, despair has grown so much that they have completely given in, in an impudent form, to buying votes. I'm sure you all have noticed. They are going around giving away money, construction materials, goats, sheep, pigs," he said.
    As his hopes of victory fade, the former mayor of Mexico City has talked up the prospect of voter fraud robbing him of victory on July 1 - the same accusation he made six years ago when he brought much of the capital to a standstill for weeks.
    Lopez Obrador and his campaign team last week accused the PRI of planning to pay voters to cast ballots for Pena Nieto and asserted that state governors from the centrist PRI had agreed to guarantee their candidate a certain number of votes.
    Speaking at a news conference in Mexico City before the rally, Lopez Obrador vowed to combat corruption if he is elected President.
    "In this campaign, I've put a special emphasis on fighting corruption. When we talk about structural reforms, I believe that the main structural reform we need, which must appear on a national agenda, before anything else, is a promise from the Mexican people to commit to honesty, to make honesty a lifestyle and a form of government. All Mexicans must pledge to eradicate corruption," he said.
    In 2006, Lopez Obrador narrowly lost to Felipe Calderon of the PAN by just 0.56 percentage points. Following the vote, Lopez Obrador declared himself the "legitimate president" and his massive protests shut down central parts of Mexico City for weeks.
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