Court Annuls Fox Party's Mayoral Victory

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2001

Mexican Court Annuls Fox Party's Mayoral Victory

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP)--Citing irregularities, Chihuahua state's
electoral court annulled the mayoral victory of President
Vicente Fox's party in Ciudad Juarez, the largest city on
Mexico's northern border.

If Mexico's federal electoral court upholds Monday's decision,
it will mark the first time Fox's party has been stripped of a
victory for irregularities similar to those that repeatedly
plagued Mexico's former ruling Institutional Revolutionary
Party.

 Fox's own July 2000 victory ended the PRI's 71-year rule.

A three-judge panel found evidence to support 10 of the 12
complaints by the PRI that Fox's National Action Party used
its position of power to influence the vote. National Action
has ruled the metropolis for nearly a decade. Ciudad Juarez is
across the border from El Paso, Texas.

"There was a lot of evidence of serious irregularities, from
the mayor airing radio and TV spots for the candidate, to
police detaining PRI leaders on election day," said Julio
Cesar Santacruz, secretary-general of the state electoral
tribunal.

National Action Party leaders denied the accusations and
planned to ask Mexico's federal electoral court to throw out
the ruling so that Mayor-elect Jesus Alfredo Delgado can take
office Oct. 10.

Delgado beat PRI candidate and businessman Roberto Barraza by
3.2 percent in a heated, mudslinging race.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

 
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