Conservative Party Takes Lead With Most of Vote Counted in Mexico's Elections

Thursday , July 06, 2006

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon caught up to his leftist rival and passed him by a razor-thin margin early Thursday during a grueling, round-the-clock vote tally to decide Mexico's closest presidential race in history.

Hundreds of Calderon supporters cheered wildly at his campaign headquarters as the ruling-party candidate — who was shown winning by 1 percentage point in the preliminary count completed earlier in the week — emerged once again to declare victory following the full official tally.

"We are ahead in the election for the presidency and the remaining votes to be counted will be in our favor," a smiling Calderon said to applause and whistles from his followers.

Shortly after, leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Democratic Revolution emerged from his house without making any public comments and drove to his campaign headquarters.

With 99.05 percent of the vote tallies counted, Calderon had 35.76 percent of the vote, while Lopez Obrador had 35.43 percent.

Mexico's electoral officials said they would not announce any tendencies until the full count was completed, expected later Thursday.