This Only Happens "Over There"

As many of my loyal readers know, I have this thing called a "job". Five out of every seven days I go to it. And while I am there, I get to do many exciting things. Like walking around. A LOT.

But that is not all! I also get to compile reports and stuff. Not every week, only on special occasions. Report duty is rotated among the staff. But this week was my week for THE READING FILE!

I like reading file week. What I have to do, as a real part of my job, is keep a finger on the pulse of world news. You know, who won what election. Or what sort of important conference is going on, and where. Stuff like that. My source of choice is the BBC World Service.

And speaking of elections - did you know there was one in Mexico? I learned this while working on the reading file. Some sort of crazy things happened in the Mexican election - the kind of stuff that could NEVER POSSIBLY happen here in the USA.

It seems that there was a problem with the election. There were a bunch of guys running for President, but only two were serious contenders.

On election day, turnout was rather high. Of the two contenders, Felipe Calderon's main supporters are Mexican business owners, and the wealthy. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has the support of the poor, and the working class. Mostly. You know how it is, some wealthy people probably voted for Mr. Obrador, and some working class probably voted for Mr. Calderon.

Now here is the part that could never possibly happen here in the USA. The vote results are is dispute. Mr. Calderon is claiming "victory" with less than 1% of the tally in his favor. The other guy is challenging the results and refuses to concede. The "winner" is calling the other guy a "sore looser" and that it is important for everyone to just accept the results and get over it. The other guy is calling for a full manual recount, ballot by ballot.

Wacky huh? Why here in the USA this could never happen. I mean, we INVENTED democracy right? OK the ancient greeks invented it - but the average American does not know this.

The winner, who by the way only got about 36% of the total vote (that part is not really in dispute) is claiming total victory. But then 3.5 million UNCOUNTED ballots were discovered. Now this really screwed things up. But will it? Lets ask Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, an expert for the Center of Strategic and International Studies - a center-right wing think tank in Washington DC. He says "I think that given the margin, it will be very difficult for the vote to be overturned". (Miami Herald).

Strange huh? The right wing think tank guy from Washington DC saying that the less than 1% margin will me very difficult to overturn even with 3.5 million (about ten times the margin by the way) votes uncounted. I suppose that it does not hurt that the "winner" so far is the right wing guy in Mexico.

Anyway, the center-left wing guy will not concede, and probably never will. His supporters have taken to the streets in protest. They tend to believe, for some strange reason, that the results were rigged. Political corruption is not exactly news in Mexico.

And according to the other guy, 36% of the vote is a clear mandate by the people for him to be El Presidente for the next 6 years.

And of course, nothing like this could ever happen in the USA. Right? At least, not again.