Bad News In Mexico

The New York Times reports that the Federal Electoral Court in Mexico has rejected candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's appeal for a full recount of the ballots. Unbelievably stupid decision. In a country where election fraud has a strong history every precaution should have been taken to ensure the legitimacy and accuracy of the result. The closeness of this race in and of itself should have been enough to recount the ballots. It is now a reasonable conjecture that the wrong man will serve as President, or if Calderon is the right man legitimately elected then his administration will always have that shadow of doubt hanging over it as to whether Calderon truly won. Lopez Obrador's supporters will likely take to the streets, and with good reason. This was a sad day for Mexico's emerging democracy. This is not about Calderon and Obrador, but about how the public views the legitimacy of its elections, and when it is this close, all possible precautions to ensure that legitimacy should be taken, and have not been.