Mexico's Pena Nieto faces vote-buying claims

Enrique Pena Nieto decisively won Mexico's presidential vote, a final official tally issued Friday showed, but he must still overcome legal challenges -- including claims he "bought" the election. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who came in second, has claimed Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is guilty of vote-buying, enjoyed media coverage biased in his favor and broke campaign spending limits. Lopez Obrador lost the last presidential election in 2006 by less than one percent, claimed fraud and held protests that virtually paralyzed Mexico City for more than a month. He has not called for protest marches this year, and said Friday that he will "proceed legally" to back up his claim. The parties have until July 12 to challenge the vote results. Pena Nieto won with 38.21 percent of the vote against 31.59 percent for Lopez Obrador with the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), according to the independent Federal Electoral Institute. Josefina Vazquez Mota of unpopular outgoing President Felipe Calderon's ruling National Action Party (PAN) came in third in Sunday's presidential vote with 25.41 percent. The youthful Pena Nieto, 45, an ex-governor of populous Mexico state, is married to glamorous soap opera star Angelica Rivera and benefited from family connections with powerful old guard PRI politicians, as well as a savvy media team that carefully stage-managed his appearances. The PRI was synonymous with the Mexican state as it governed for 71 years until 2000 using a mixture of patronage, repression, rigged elections and bribery. Pena Nieto, who first declared victory late Sunday, inherits a country beset by a brutal drug war and an economy struggling to create jobs. The official results were announced early Friday after a painstaking recount of results at a little more than half of the country's 143,144 polling stations that dragged on far longer than expected. Octavio Aguilar, a senior Vazquez Mota campaign official, estimated that the PRI spent up to $500 million getting Pena Nieto elected, shattering the legal campaign spending limit of $30 million. "That's is the problem with this democracy -- the one who has the most money buys the election," Aguilar told AFP. The fraud was not at the ballot box, but in the river of cash the PRI used to pay for everything from gift cards to campaign paraphernalia to years of favorable TV coverage, he said. The charges, backed up by documents published by Mexican and foreign media, focus on Mexico's TV network giant Televisa. "But they were not the only ones," Aguilar claimed. Televisa earlier rejected claims that it was paid for positive Pena Nieto coverage, and the PRI is on record insisting it ran a clean campaign. Calderon said Friday that election officials must investigate the overspending charges. "As president and as a citizen, I do believe the electoral authorities are obliged to give us an answer on this," Calderon told the Excelsior daily. "If this is not properly investigated, there will be reason to at least refuse to accept (the results) or at least protest," he said. Lopez Obrador said Friday his team had "more data to back up the hypothesis that they (the PRI) bought the presidential election." The leftist politician said he is preparing a report that includes receipts and testimony on how the PRI bribed voters to cast ballots in their favor in exchange for gift cards, building material and household appliances. Lopez Obrador has pointed to what he claims were "millions of bought votes." Pena Nieto has meanwhile moved quickly to try to allay fears that the PRI's victory would mean a return to the once authoritarian party and old corrupt practices. "Anything can be said" about vote buying, "but one has to present proof," Pena Nieto told the Spanish daily El Pais. Since his victory, he has spoken mainly to foreign media. Pena Nieto said his campaign had nothing to do with the gift cards, and reiterated that it was a clean election. World leaders, including US President Barack Obama, have already congratulated Pena Nieto on his apparent victory. An anti-PRI "mega march" has been announced for Saturday in Mexico City via online forums and flyers handed out in the street. Both Lopez Obrador and the #YoSoy132 student movement say they are not behind the event. Mexico City however is a leftist bastion, and in this populous city, gathering people for an anti-PRI march is hardly a challenge.