Speech by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Presidential Candidate from the Coalition POR EL BIEN DE TODOS

Second Informative Assembly, Zocalo, Mexico City.

[Translated by Judith Joffe-Block]

July 16, 2006

Friends:

My deepest thanks to all of you for your presence at this Second Informative Meeting. From my heart, thank you, to those of you who have arrived from distant parts of the country, marching, in caravan, or on your own, in all of these cases, you came willingly and are paying your expenses with your own resources.

Citizens are here fom Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Coahuila, Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Estado de México, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Yucatán, Zacatecas and the Federal District (Mexico City).

You and I know that this effort is not in vain. The cause that we are defending is of great historic significance for Mexico.

You are here not just to support one person, but rather to defend the citizenry's inalienable right to freely elect those who govern. For this very reason, the central objective of our movement should be very clear. We are not only fighting for the recognition of our legitimate triumph in the presidential election, but rather for a greater cause, to make our country's democracy valid.

We cannot accept a regression, a setback in democracy. In the recent political history of our country, the effort to make free, fair, and clean elections possible has cost many sacrifices; including the lives of thousands of Mexicans.

We cannot accept that with illegality, money, and tricks, a privileged group wants to put into power an illegitimate president.

We cannot give up the right to a better life through a democratic path.

We cannot give up the right to hope. For this, I repeat, the general objective of this movement is the defense of democracy.

In an exercise of our rights, we are asking the Federal Electoral Tribunal to order for the electoral packets to be opened, and to carry out an authentic recount of the votes.

It is not by chance that the slogan of "vote by vote, polling place by polling place" has surged from the people with support and reason behind it.

I will inform you that, in addition to the delinquent attitude of the IFE (Federal Elections Institute) during the campaign; the manipulation of the computing systems; the lack of fairness in the purchase of media advertising; the streams of money from unknown sources spent by our adversaries; of illegal activism by interest groups; the "dirty war;" the use of public programs and resources in support of the rightist candidate, this as well as the President of the Republic's constant meddling, now I can tell you, on top of all this, they falsified the results in the tally sheets.

For example, of the audit we have carried out, 60% of the total 130,788 tally sheets have (quote) "mathematical errors"—which is to say, there are thousands of tally sheets where the total vote, plus the extra ballots, is greater or less than the ballots received; thousands of tally sheets where the total vote is greater or less than the number of cast ballots, and thousands of tally sheets where the total number of votes plus the extra ballots is greater or less than the number on the voter rolls, plus 10.

I will make myself more clear: there are almost a million and a half votes that do not correspond to the electoral ballots; or rather, the tally sheets don't reflect the true vote, because they recorded a greater or less number of votes than those deposited in the ballot box.

From our point of view, this explains why, when it was permitted to open some electoral packets and do a recount in the District Councils, cases appeared where the rightist candidate, fraudulently, had 100-200 extra votes, and we were missing up to 100 votes per polling place.

All of this proof was presented on time and correctly in the appeal that we presented before the Federal Electoral Tribunal. Therefore, this institution has a quantitative and qualitative basis to order that the electoral packets be opened and be counted vote by vote, polling place by polling place.

I am absolutely sure that, if the recount of votes is carried out, it will demonstrate that we triumphed cleanly, legally, and legitimately in the July 2 elections.

From this public plaza I call on the candidate of the right to act in a responsible manner and accept, without any excuse, the review of the tally sheets and the vote-by-vote recount in all of the country's polling places. If he maintains that he won, than he has no reason to refuse this. He who owes nothing, fears nothing. I suggest that you consider that the stain of a fraudulent election does not get erased even with all of the water with the ocean. I remind you, also, that Mexico, our great country, and its people, do not deserve to have a false president of the Republic without moral or political authority.

Furthermore, I repeat: It is not valid that our enemies hide in manipulative and misleading legal arguments--to refuse to open the electoral packets for lack of time or for technical reasons-- when what is in play is the democracy and the political stability of the country. No one should fear that the election become clean, that it resolve itself, and be judged before the eyes of Mexico and the world.

It is not a lot to ask that there is transparency. We reaffirm all of our demands:

For the political, economic, and financial stability of the country, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

To advance, and leave behind the political culture of mistrust, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

So that all Mexicans feel content with our civic conscience and with our own selves, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

In order to contribute to social peace, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

So that money does not keep triumphing over dignity and the moral of the people, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

So that no Mexican who voted on July 2 is left with a feeling of dissatisfaction or trickery, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

So that doors never close to the democracy, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

To maintain Mexico's integrity, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

To strengthen the institutions, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

To reinforce the legality, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

To avoid irrational confrontation, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

To contribute to the reconciliation and the unity of Mexicans, vote by vote, polling place by polling place!

Friends:

While the Tribunal resolves our case, I offer you the following actions for your consideration:

1. Reinforce the citizen camps located in the areas outside of the 300 District Council offices where the electoral packets are housed.

These camps are indispensable to avoid that ballots are put in or taken out of the electoral packets illegally.

The proposal is that these 300 camps will be converted into centers for decision-making, information and dissemination, in favor of our cause and so intellectuals, artists and personalities from civil society can attend and participate.

2. Carry out, starting this week, the first actions of peaceful civil resistance.

With this purpose, a citizen committee will be formed that will define the kind of actions and under what circumstances to act.

3. Celebrate the Third Informative Assembly Sunday July 30, with a march like today, from the Museum of Anthropology and History to the Zocalo, at 11:00 in the morning.

Our adversaries are counting on, among other things, our movement to dishearten and peter out.

Once again we are going to show them that when they want to step on the dignity and rights of the citizens, and when there are attacks against democracy, there are always women and men with principles and convictions, who don't tire out or ever yield. As Carlos Monsivais has said, "He who disheartens and gives up, will never be worthy of pessimism."

Friends:

All of you here and those who could not come, we should feel proud to be living in these decisive moments in Mexico's public life.

I am convinced that not even with all of the state apparatus, used delinquently; nor with all of the money of a privileged group; nor with all of the manipulation that they have started, can they squash the free, conscious, and responsible will of millions of Mexicans. We don't forget that we are millions of Mexicans, willing to exercise our rights. And this is a more powerful force.

I will take a moment to recognize the directors of the parties of the Coalition, of the PRD, of the PT (Worker's Party), and of Convergencia; of the citizen networks and of civil society for its loyal attitude and consistency. We are living in defining times, days that test us, and we will all be prepared to meet the challenges.

As for my part, I will tell you again: Have confidence that I am not going to betray the Mexican people.

I have the conviction that I am not alone because we are all in this together.

[To read the original text of the speech in Spanish, click here.]