Yesterday the highest electoral tribunal of Mexico threw out the legal challenge of Andrés López Obrador who has been leading weeks of protests claiming extensive fraud in last month’s presidential election.
The New York Times reports that López Obrador has still not conceded. After finding out about the courts ruling, López Obrador explained that
Today the electoral tribunal decided to validate the fraud against the citizens’ will and decided to back the criminals who robbed us of the presidential election
At this point, however, López Obrador seems to be running out of arguments. By continuing his attack on the electoral court all he will achieve is to erode the new political institutions that allowed him to run in free and fair elections in the first place. Mr. López Obrador seems to forget the decades of election fraud and questionable democratic practices that plagued Mexico. Before, presidents where not elected in competitive elections but by “el dedazo.” Under “el dedazo,” one PRI party president would simply name his immediate successor.
Hopefully, López Obrador will soon realize the need to acknowledge the results of the election process and support the new government. Only if this happens will Mexico be able to continue improving its new political institutions. After all, democratic institutions cannot only be understood as abstract rules and procedures. Functioning democratic institutions do much more; they work as guiding patterns of behavior for citizens. López Obrador needs to embrace these new institutions rather than continue to erode them through his claims of widespread electoral fraud. This way Mexicans will learn that elections are decided at the ballot box and not on the streets.
Published Date: August 29, 2006