Conservative ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon won Mexico's ferociously contested July 2 election and is president-elect, the top electoral court said in a draft ruling Tuesday.
 
Earlier in the day, the court said Calderon had won with a margin of about 234,000 votes. In this latest draft ruling, the court said he could now be declared president-elect, the first time the electoral body has intervened on this level.

A panel of seven judges, who had already thrown out leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's claims of massive electoral fraud, later endorsed the court draft. The decision is final and beyond contestation or appeal.

Mexico, which only introduced multi-party elections with President Vicente Fox's victory at the last presidential election in 2000, has been rocked for months by open political warfare preceding Fox leaving office on December 1.

The election split the nation of over 100 million people along class lines, and leftist protests against alleged vote rigging have paralyzed the centre of Mexico City.

Calderon's victory will be a boost to the United States as he will be a key ally in Latin America, where several left-wing leaders critical of Washington have taken power in recent years.

Lopez Obrador, a fiery speaker who promised to focus on Mexico's millions of poor, says he will not accept former Energy Minister Calderon, 44, as president. The leftist former mayor of the capital has vowed to set up a parallel government.

But his supporters, with the courts, electoral authorities, media and big business forming a powerful bloc against them, are increasingly resigned to Calderon ruling for the next six years.

Leftists set off fireworks outside the court building in protest Tuesday morning, and the explosions were clearly heard in the courtroom.

"The powerful control the authorities with their money," said Lopez Obrador follower Jesus Tomas, 70, in the central Zocalo square, occupied all week by leftist protesters.

Calderon plans to cut deals with centrist opposition parties to push forward pro-business tax, labor and energy reforms through Congress, where his National Action Party lacks a majority, despite being the biggest party.

Still, his first challenge could well be to stave off massive street protests and win over close to a third of Mexicans who believe he stole the election.

Juan Camilo Mourino, who is leading Calderon's transition team, said the new government would make the fight against poverty a central theme in an attempt to win over the millions who voted for Lopez Obrador. "Without a doubt the next government of Mexico must have a clear social leaning," he said.

Just six years ago, Mexico erupted in euphoria after Fox's historic election victory ended decades of single-party rule, but this year's vote reopened deep class divisions that have undermined Mexico's new political system.

(China Daily September 6, 2006)