Mexico: IFA confirms Nieto's victory
On July 8, officials from Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute (IFA) confirmed that candidate Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won the presidential election held on July 1 in the country.
This result is unchanged from the previously announced vote count.
Reuters news agency quoted the final vote count of IFA as saying that Mr. Pena Nieto received 19.2 million votes (38.21%), compared to 15.9 million votes (31.59%) of the second-place candidate, the leftist representative, Mr. Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Mr. Enrique Pena Nieto (left) and his wife celebrate their victory in Mexico City after the election results were announced. (Source: AFP/VNA)
Coming in third with 12.8 million votes (or 25.4%) was the candidate of the ruling National Action Party (PAN) Josefina Vazquez Mota.
With this result, IFA officials predict that the coalition of the PRI Party and Mr. Nieto's Environmental Green Party will win 240 seats out of 500 in the House of Representatives that will convene next September, while the PAN Party will have 116 seats and three left-wing parties will hold the remaining 134 seats.
In the 128-seat Senate, the PRI and Green Party coalition won 62 seats, followed by the PAN with 38 seats and three left-wing parties with 27 seats.
Mr Nieto's victory in the recent election marked the return to power of the PRI Party, which led Mexico for most of the 20th century before losing to the PAN Party in the 2000 election.
After the final results are announced, Mexican courts will have two months to resolve litigation related to the election results before officially declaring Mr. Nieto the country's president.
On the same day, outgoing President Felipe Calderon sent a congratulatory message to Mr. Nieto on his election as president of Mexico.
According to the Mexican state news agency NOTIMEX, after 7 days of election, so far 30 governments have congratulated Mr. Penha Nieto and expressed their willingness to cooperate with the new government in Mexico, including the US, Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Cuba, Chile, Guatemala, France, Spain, Germany, Russia, China, Japan and Thailand.
Previously, on July 2 - right after IFA announced the vote counting results, leftist PRD candidate Manuel Lopez Obrador rejected Mr. Nieto's victory and requested a recount because he believed there was fraud, especially in areas where the race between candidates was relatively close.
On July 7, tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Mexico's capital, claiming that Mr. Nieto's party "bought votes" to help him win the recent presidential election.
According to authorities in Mexico City, the number of people participating in the protest was up to 50,000./.
According to (TTXVN) - DT
