Photo: Google

By KELIN DILLON

Following her defeat in Mexico’s presidential election by National Regeneration Movement (Morena) candidate Claudia Sheinbaum on Sunday, June 2, National Action Party (PAN) candidate Xóchitl Gálvez demanded a vote-by-vote recount by the National Electoral Institute (INE) across 80 percent of Mexico’s polling stations.

Gálvez, who only reportedly earned approximately 26.6 to 28.8 percent of the vote compared to Sheinbaum’s estimated 58.3 and 60.7 percent, claims the recount should be made in “resistance to protect our democracy, our constitution, and our freedom.” 

According to Gálvez, electoral results posted in certain voting stations failed to correspond with results released by the Preliminary Electoral Elections Program (PREP).

“There are 80 percent of the polling stations where we will request a vote-by-vote review. The INE has already accepted the recount in at least 60 percent of the polling stations. We will defend the vote of all elections: the presidential election, governors, senators, federal and local deputies and municipal presidents,” said Gálvez, requesting that voters upload any anomalies they saw during the voting process on social media.

Gálvez also announced she would be taking legal action against outgoing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) “due to the very clear intervention of the president in the electoral process, due to the evident use of public resources in Morena’s campaign and due to the high level of violence and the intervention of organized crime.”

Marko Cortés, the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) national president, echoed Gálvez’s sentiments, saying in a video message that “we need transparency and clarity in this election; certainty is needed about what happened on Sunday, June 2, and that every vote counts.” 

Cortés noted that a minimum of 17,065 polling stations across the country failed to register even one vote for the PAN.

“It was not clean, it was not legitimate and there was never an even playing field,” added Cortés.