New York Times
March 31, 1999

MEXICO CITY, March 30 (AP) -- The top electoral court today upheld the governing party's narrow victory in a governorship election last month in the state of Guerrero. The ruling prompted increased protests by members of the opposition Democratic Revolution Party.

Interior Secretary Francisco Labastida warned that the Government could call in the police if opposition protesters tried to prevent the wining candidate from taking office on Thursday, the Government news agency, Notimex, reported. In the decision, the Federal Electoral Tribunal threw out the results from some polling places, but not enough to annul the victory of René Juárez Cisneros of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The tribunal has never reversed election results in a governorship race.

The candidate of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, Senator Felix Salgado, who said he was cheated out of the governorship, said the ruling "displays the position of submitting to the President's will while not obeying the law".

The opposition had accused the PRI of widespread irregularities and vote buying in the election on Feb. 7 that included the resorts of Acapulco and Ixtapa.

The tribunal president, José Luis de la Peza , said that the leftist party had not presented enough evidence to support all its claims and that the law permitted much of the vote buying.

The ruling trimmed Mr. Juarez's margin to 14,227 votes from 17,713. Each candidate received more than 400,000 votes.

Mr. Salgado had contended that PRI officials had passed out roofing, food and other goods before the election. Mr. Labastida, who supervises national security, minimized the possibility of violent protests by the Revolutionary Popular Army, a group of leftist rebels who have also objected to the governing party's victory.

"It seems to me the wrong path to follow, because they would obtain nothing from it," Notimex quoted him as having said.

The tribunal also upheld a PRI victory in the Quintana Roo, along the Caribbean, another race that the Democratic Revolution Party had contested. The victory by Joaquín Hendricks, was, trimmed, however, from 18,754 votes to 15,976.