Peña Nieto seeks comfortable victory

In light of the annulment of a mayoral election in Michoacan last week, national frontrunner Enrique Peña Nieto has said he aims to win a clear and decisive victory in July’s presidential election.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate wants to win by a comfortable margin to avoid the possibility of a court ruling over the outcome. Peña Nieto said he hopes for a “show of great strength and vitality, so that the victory is overwhelming and the courts do not make mistakes, much less seek to change the public’s decision. The PRI will win the presidency of the Republic.”

His concern stems from events last week when a regional electoral tribunal annulled Morelia’s November 13 mayoral election, following complaints from the National Action Party (PAN) that mayor-elect Wilfido Lazaro Medina of the PRI had broken campaign regulation laws.

“We do not want what happened in Morelia to occur again, where a court ruling struck down the decision of the majority in Morelia.” He added that his party has been respectful of the institutions and complied with the ruling.

The favorite to win the presidency, Peña Nieto will also be hoping to avoid the kind of controversial outcome that overshadowed the 2006 presidential election. In a bitterly disputed contest, Felipe Calderon of the PAN beat Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) by less than one percent of the vote.

Although the result was eventually confirmed by the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF), the allegations of electoral fraud and weeks of demonstrations in the capital served to overshadow Calderon’s inauguration and undermine his legitimacy as president.