TRIFE: Count some of the votes

Mexico's election tribunal ordered a partial recount yesterday, but that failed to pacify PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his supporters, who promised to keep up their "civil resistance" in Mexico City's streets until all of the votes are counted again.

Lopez Obrador's all-or-nothing approach found little support from the other four electoral factions. The PAN, PRI and Alternativa backed the election tribunal's decision. Support for a recount runs at slightly less than 50 percent of respondents according to an Ipsos Bimsa survey. Grupo Reforma found 60 percent of its respondents against a recount. (It conducted a telephone survey, which could have undercounted poorer regions, where telecommunications service isn't widespread and the PRD is popular. Perhaps Lopez Obrador gripes about Grupa Reforma for a reason.)

The recent protests, which closed the capital's Paseo de la Reforma and Zocalo (town square), drew criticism from both intellectuals and ordinary chilangos, who in some newspaper reports, expressed buyer's remorse, ruing the fact they voted PRD. The disruption to everyday life has possibly alienated more supporters than it's won.

In an enlightening interview with Excelsior, former PRD Mexico City mayor Rosario Robles condemned the street protests. In blunt language, she castigated the PRD government in the Federal District for cozying up to the Lopez Obrador campaign. She also said the PRD was behaving like the old PRI. Previously, the PRI was an extension of the government. Now, Robles said the PRD government in Mexico City is putting itself at the service of the PRD campaign.