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Mexican Election Loser Sworn in as "Legitimate President"

Nearly 3 months after the Mexican July 2 elections, the leftist opposition leader, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador donned the red-white-and-green sash of presidency and was sworn in as "legitimate president" as crowds at Zocalo aquare in central Mexico City chanted "president, president". The ceremony has no legal weight as both the courts and the public have already decided President-elect Felipe Calderon has won the elections despite allegations of election fraud.

Calderon has won the election by a small margin. Obrador has appealed the elections results claiming that they have been forged yet Mexico`s top election court threw out the claims saying the election has been fair. Following the courts decision, leftist protest camps have been set up throughout central Mexico City but this protest has slowly disintegrated since. After the elections approximately one in every three Mexicans believed the election`s results have been fraudulent but today 56% of Mexican`s appose Obradors self-declaration of presidency while only 19% back him.

The elections have brought forward the rip in Mexican society. It is widely regarded as a class struggle between the leftist lower classes and the pro-American conservative upper-classes. Obrador speaking to La Jornada newspaper put it well: "We have the same conditions now as there were then: too much poverty, they don`t respect your rights, health and education are restricted," marking the lower classes` distaste of two decades of free-market reform which a great portion of citizenry feel have not improved their situation. Orbador says he will work to ease the suffering of millions of Mexico`s poor although it is not clear how he could effectively do that.