Call for rally stirs fears of unrest in Mexico

By Adam Thomson in Mexico City

Published: July 6 2006 19:14 | Last updated: July 6 2006 23:03

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leftwing candidate in Mexico’s presidential elections, refused on Thursday night to accept defeat at the hands of his centre-right rival, Felipe Calderón.

He called instead on his supporters to gather for a mass rally in the capital on Saturday.

“It is clear that there was manipulation [of the counting],” Mr López Obrador, of the Democratic Revolution party (PRD), said, hours after Mr Calderón had taken a wafer-thin lead.

“We are not going to sit back with our arms crossed.”

With 99.9 per cent of the vote counted last night, Mr Calderón, of the ruling National Action party, had won 35.86 per cent, compared with Mr López Obrador’s 35.32 per cent.

Mr López Obrador’s call for a rally in Mexico City’s Zócalo Square, which can hold more than 100,000 people, is a new phase of his party’s protest over the counting of the vote.