MEXICO: Conservative Mexican President Felipe Calderon hands over his annual state of the union report, and opposition senators and deputies file out of the legislature

More than 100 leftist lawmakers snubbed Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Saturday (September 1), abandoning Congress in protest of what they say was election fraud in last year's presidential vote. Moments before conservative Calderon arrived to hand over his annual state of the union report, opposition senators and deputies who refuse to recognise his razor-thin election victory last year filed out of the legislature. Calderon won last year's presidential election by less than one percentage point with 36 percent of the vote, and leftist opponent Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accused him of vote fraud. A court threw out those claims. "The circumstances and ways in which we now attend this session, show that the old way the presidential annual state of the union report was delivered has expired and now, a new republican relationship should be built inside union powers," said Ruth Zavaleta, head of the lower house and a member of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD. She added that she could not accept a document from an electoral process which is doubted by millions of Mexicans. "I communicate to you that I will leave this podium because I cannot accept a document that comes from an electoral process which has been legally concluded but whose legitimacy is doubted by millions of Mexicans. For your understanding, thank you," Zavaleta said. Since then, Calderon's popularity has jumped as he tries to reach compromises with opposition lawmakers on a tax reform while taking a hard line with violent drug cartels. Calderon's approval rating was a comfortable 65 percent in a Reforma newspaper poll on Saturday (September 1), the same as in June. Since last year's election, lawmakers from Lopez Obrador's PRD have refused to recognise Calderon as president, although they have been willing to negotiate with him on the federal budget and other bills. Calderon had already cancelled his state of the union address to Congress because leftist lawmakers had threatened to stop him from entering the hall. Instead, he plans to give a speech on Sunday at another location. Scores of seats were left empty as Calderon handed in a written version of his state of the union report. He made brief comments, calling for dialogue with the opposition. In Saturday's poll, Mexicans gave Calderon high marks for health and education, but docked him points for his crackdown on drug gangs, whose war over valuable cocaine smuggling routes has killed about 1,600 people this year. Since taking office in December, Calderon has deployed thousands of soldiers to attack the drug cartels, winning approval of many Mexicans. But opposition legislators have increasingly criticised him for using the military to fight crime, citing reports of rights abuses. Calderon, whose National Action Party lacks a majority in Congress, negotiated a law with opposition lawmakers in March to stem growing obligations in the public pension system. Legislators say they are also near a compromise on a tax overhaul proposal by Calderon to boost government income and ease the country's dependence on oil revenues.

ITN Source | September 2, 2007

Tags:. .accept. .seats. .document. .conservative. .refused