Claudia Delgadillo, the runner-up in the Jalisco gubernatorial election on June 2, continues to insist that the contest was tainted by fraud.
Pablo Lemus of the Citizens Movement won the election ahead of Delgadillo by a five-percent margin, according to the Jalisco Electoral Institute (IEPC), which this week officially concluded its role in the process. The State Electoral Tribunal will hear any complaints filed by the political parties.
Delgadillo and her Morena Party colleagues argue that their “Let Keep Making History” coalition was somehow cheated out of at least 300,000 votes, in addition many other questionable incidents on election day.
Among their allegations are packets of ballots and documentation from polling booths that went missing, ballots found discarded in empty lots, a total of what it terms “86,000 dubious null and void votes,” technological failures during the vote tabulation process, and “complicity” between IEPC and MC that influenced the vote. (Morena says at least 25 officials belonging to the MC served as advisors on district or municipal electoral councils where votes were tabulated.)
Back on her old stomping ground in the Senate this week, Delgadillo appeared at a press conference alongside Ricardo Monreal, Morena’s leader in the upper house, to demand that the election be annulled. Morena had previously called for a vote-by-vote recount, a move welcomed by both Lemus and Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro.
The latest demand for a new election was ridiculed by MC Senator Clemente Castañeda, who argued that Morena has failed to produce any concrete evidence of fraud, accusing them of having a “failed strategy” and being “sore losers.”
“It makes no sense,” Castañeda said. “In addition to a vote-by-vote recount, (Delgadillo) wants the election annulled.”
Castañeda said Morena should apologize to the IEPC workers who are being besmirched, and who carried out their civic duty on June 2 with honor.