Mexico: Presidential Election Deadlocked!

While Mexico's election commission had hoped to declare a winner last night based on a "quick count" of representative polling stations, it has now become clear that the resolution of this election is going to be anything but quick. With almost all of the votes counted, conservative Felipe Calderon and socialist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are virtually tied - and both of them have declared victory. Here are the results turned in by 95.6% of the polling places (top two candidates only):

Felipe Calderon - 36.46%
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador - 35.41%

However, there is a catch. These numbers are not the OFFICIAL count, since they were counted at the various polling places across the country. The election commission will not declare a winner until they complete their own count of all the ballots - which will not even start until Wednesday. With such a razor-thin margin (about 500,000 votes) this election could easily go either way.

Regardless of who wins, this election is bound divide the Mexican population. Lopez Obrador pledged that he would govern for the poor, while Calderon's free market policies have caused him to be seen as a candidate of the rich. Both candidates had previously pledged to respect the result, but Lopez Obrador will not rule out calling massive street protests if he feels that he must "defend his triumph" (in other words, if he thinks he won but the election commission says otherwise).

Stay tuned....

Tags: Mexico, Mexico Election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Lopez Obrador, Felipe Calderon, Calderon, AMLO, Politica, PAN, Elecciones2006, prd