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How Did We Get Here? Mexican Democracy after the 2006 Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2007

Chappell Lawson
Chappell Lawson
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Extract

On July 2, 2006, Mexican voters elected National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderón as the next president of Mexico. Calderón's victory was extremely narrow; he won under 36% of the total vote and less that 0.6% more than his leftist rival, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. This potentially problematic situation was aggravated by López Obrador's decision to challenge Calderón's victory, both in the courts and in the streets. López Obrador's protest campaign culminated on September 16, when tens of thousands of his followers gathered in downtown Mexico City to acclaim him “legitimate president” of Mexico. Meanwhile, in the legislature, leaders of López Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) oscillated between hints that they would collaborate with Calderón's administration and signs that they would adopt a posture of untrammeled hostility.

Type
SYMPOSIUM—THE 2006 MEXICAN ELECTION AND ITS AFTERMATH
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , January 2007 , pp. 45 - 48
Copyright
© 2007 The American Political Science Association

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