Memo to Andrés Manuel López Obrador: "¡Ya basta, señor!" (Give it a REST, sir)

MGR Opinion -
This isn't 2006, and it's time for the conspiracy-possessed firebrand to take a seat

PRI - 19,227,000 votes (38.21%)
PRD - 15,896,000 votes (31.59%)


Mérida, Yucatán -
I believe in democracy, and the right of people to select their own leaders. Many say they do, but really don't. They believe in democracy, as long as their candidate ends up on top. If he or she doesn't, they cry foul. Such is the case with defeated PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador and many (although not all) PRD loyalists.

Such is the case, too, with not a few political commentators in this intensely politicized nation (really, it's the stuff of day-time soap opera at times), including an always far-off-the-charts rabble rouser in Mexico City, a U.S. sociologist who is forever masquerading as a legal authority. (He's the same guy who last year asked the International Criminal Court to indict Felipe Calderón for war crimes, for having had the guts to take on the drug cartels and organized crime.). In the past couple of days this prolific commentator - surely he's paid by the word - has been mouthing off about how nobody is really behind Enrique Peña Nieto, since his victory is now under a cloud of suspicion. He fails to note that there are 19,226,784 Mexicans who would disagree with that proposition.

One cynical student of the political process defined democracy as the right of the people to choose the worst government possible. I think it's a legitimate definition. And I support the right of the people to do exactly that. Those who don't support that notion, of which there are many, by definition don't believe in democracy. They merely believe in the right of their ideas to prevail.

I'm not a citizen of Mexico, and I didn't vote on July 1. Had I been eligible to do so, two of the four candidates would have been of particular interest to me and would have received my careful consideration, including the least popular, PNA's Gabriel Quadri (an eminently qualified professional who might have benefited from a hair and wardrobe makeover). EPN, by the way, was not the other.

I don't believe that Enrique Peña Nieto was the most qualified candidate, and my readers know that I've never spared him the rod on this page. But I have no doubt whatever that he was elected by a solid majority of Mexicans who freely and privately cast their ballots on July 1. He won and the other three lost, Manuel López Obrador by a very substantial 3.3 million votes (Final count shows Peña Nieto won by 6.62%). As any fourth grade civics student call tell you, that means Peña Nieto gets the fancy office beginning Dec. 1.

The irresponsible claims claims made by AMLO that PRI bought five million votes with Soriana frequent shopper cards (and/or by other means) are but another example of the leftist candidate's predictable post-election whining. The PRD governor-elect of Tabasco state - he's also a member of López Obrador's legal team - said yesterday that it "would be impossible to prove that votes were bought." Top Soriana executives have already given statements to Mexican prosecutors, flatly denying the allged conspiracy. In the long checkout line at my local Soriana yesterday, nobody was buying the bizarre story, either. A man standing next to me, who volunteered that he's no PRIsta, ridiculed the notion that millions of votes were secured in exchange for eggs, milk and a loaf of bread.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador can only hurt the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the important role played by the leftist movement in Mexican politics by pursuing these grossly exaggerated claims of vote purchasing and ballot box fraud. In 2006, when he lost by a hair (0.56%), his protests indeed enjoyed prima facie legitimacy. But not this year. AMLO should take a lesson from PAN candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota, who graciously conceded the race a mere 30 minutes after the exit polls were released, and who has maintained a low and respectable profile since. That's why she has a political future in this country.

Was everything perfect on July 1? Of course not. They never are in elections, anywhere. But factors like an arguably biased media and the "corrupt system" complaints on which López Obrador is heavily focused are institutional in nature. They are de facto, endemic if you will, but not the result of a deliberately perpetrated fraud. There is a grand difference between the two. Every morning I must endure Mérida's hopelessly biased Diario de Yucatán, which is rather like awaking next to an unwelcome bed partner. But the paper's childlike adoration of all things PAN has nothing whatever to do with "fraud." I can and do make up my own mind, without its preposterously and relentlessly partisan advice. Ten days ago the Mexican people did likewise, and their electoral decision is entitled to our full respect, not contempt.

Enrique Peña Nieto will be sworn in as Mexico's next president in about 140 days. You can bank on it. Let those who allege the election was stolen prove their case with courtroom evidence. The winner is under no legal obligation to demonstrate the contrary, and a negative can never be proven. As for the sore loser, "¡Ya basta!, señor Andrés Manuel."

Aug. 1 - Soriana blasts Manuel López Obrador, accusing him of inciting violence>
July 30 - Mexico's Soriana grocery chain targeted by bombers
July 21 - Mexico facing greater political crisis this year than in 2006, says commentator
July 15 - Spain's El País blasts López Obrador
July 13 - Manuel López Obrador fires in all directions, demanding a new election
July 12 - PAN agrees, it's impossible to prove that 25% of vote was tampered with
July 12 - López Obrador pide se invalide la elección presidencial
July 11 - Desinflan Marcelo Ebrard y Núñez el caso "compra de votos"
July 11 - PRD official admits that "it's impossible to prove votes were bought"
June 16 - Yo NO Soy's "summer of discontent"

A sample of the opposition's intensely analytical reasoning process - Mérida, July 7.