In its final ruling, Mexico’s electoral court (TEPJF) did acknowledge that there was illegal campaign interference by President Vicente Fox and from the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial (CCE) in favor the governing National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderón and against rival Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).

They further recognized that the attack ads used against López Obrador were illegal, however, they pointed out that the AMLO had used the same tactics. Nevertheless, in the end, the seven-judge panel firmly stated that none of the irregularities was significant enough to have significantly altered the outcome of the election.

The unappealable ruling handed down by the electoral court, which in its 10 years of existence has never been accused of bias, details each of the irregularities that were found, but says that their impact was not strong enough to justify annulling the elections.

Under Mexican law, an election can only be annulled if widespread fraud can be “objectively proven.”

TEPJF has been in existence for the last 10 years and has ruled against all parties at some time. During the 10 years, the electoral court has annulled the results of 33 local elections including two for provincial governors and the remainder at the municipal level. In fact, one of TEPJF landmark cases, the court had annulled a governor’s race in Tabasco because the court determined “grave irregularities” such as vote buying and there was greater coverage produced for the PRI candidate by the state-owned television network.

With respect to the negative campaign ads against the AMLO, the judges argued that the AMLO’s coalition Por El Bien de Todos (For the Good of All) failed to provide conclusive evidence how they were affected in the final result.

The court had also rejected the allegations that López Obrador received unfair treatment by the media, and that the Fox administration manipulated government social programmes to benefit Calderón.

With regard to the alleged misuse of government social programmes, the electoral court found that in more than half of the municipalities where local residents benefit from the aid plans, López Obrador triumphed, while the winner in the country’s 15 poorest municipalities was Roberto Madrazo, the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled the country from 1929 to 2000, but came in third in the July elections.

The coalition did acknowledge that they had difficult time presenting their care, but they do point out that during the hearing the irregularities were clearly revealed, and asserted that the judges should have annulled the elections as a result.

According to Reforma columnist, Miguel Granados, the judges decision to downplay the irregularities, has now sent clear message that “illegalities are good business.”

Now with no recourse available to challenge the results, López Obrador and his supporters are preparing for their National Democratic Convention, scheduled on Sept. 16, where they will name AMLO head of a parallel government.

Via / Inter Press Service & Foreign Policy Research Institute