Mexican Court: Calderon Wins

A draft report by the Mexican election court declares Felipe Calderon the president-elect of Mexico. The ruling will become official after the vote tallies are certified later today.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Conservative ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon won Mexico's ferociously contested July 2 election and is president-elect, the top electoral court said in a draft ruling on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the court said Calderon had won with a margin of about 234,000 votes. In this latest draft ruling, the court said he could now be declared president-elect, the first time the election body has made this announcement.

The final, official decision is still to be voted on later in the day by a panel of seven judges, who have already thrown out leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's claims of massive fraud.

Mexico, which only introduced full democracy with President Vicente Fox's victory at the last presidential election in 2000, has been gripped by political drama for months.

While as late as yesterday, AMLO was still talking tough, his support may finally failing him. Last night supporters set up camp around the election court vowing to block passage to it. By this morning most had simply drifted away. The few remaining people this morning set off fireworks outside the court which could clearly be heard inside the hearing room. (If that isn't a veiled threat, I don't know what is).

UPDATE: The ruling is now official. AMLO is saying he will never accept the ruling.

His leftist rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, had said he would not recognize the ruling. His supporters wept as the decision was announced and the courthouse shook as protesters set off fireworks outside.

"Felipe Calderon didn't win. Fraud won," opposition supporter Francisca Ojeda said, screaming to be heard over protesters throwing trash at the court and screaming "Fraud! Fraud!"

The court found no evidence of systematic fraud, although it threw out some polling place results for mathematical errors, irregularities, and other problems that trimmed Calderon's 240,000-vote advantage to 233,831 votes out of 41.6 million cast.

"There are no perfect elections," Judge Alfonsina Berta Navarro Hidalgo said.

The tribunal's decision was final and cannot be appealed.