Mexicans stage huge poll protest

Hundreds of thousands of supporters of Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador have demanded a recount in the election on 2 July.

The demonstration is the second big protest to be held in the streets of the capital Mexico City since Mr Lopez Obrador narrowly lost the vote.

He alleged that there was electoral fraud and called for a manual recount.

Results show his conservative opponent Felipe Calderon won by a margin of only 0.57 of a percentage point.

Civil resistance

Mr Lopez Obrador told supporters he vowed to start civil resistance to force a recount.

"To defend democracy we are going to begin peaceful civil resistance", the leader of the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) told the crowd gathered in the Zocalo, the main public square in the capital.

Supporters and party activists dressed mainly in yellow, the PRD colours, walked several kilometres with shouts of "vote by vote, ballot box by ballot box".

Police officials in the city government, which is run by the PRD, said that as many as 900,000 people took part in the march, but other reports put the estimated figure at up to 200,000.

Supporters of Mr Lopez Obrador also joined a mass rally in Mexico City last weekend to call for a recount.

He has presented some 900 pages of alleged evidence of electoral irregularities to the Federal Electoral Tribunal, which must make a ruling by 6 September.

His ruling-party rival, Felipe Calderon, has said a complete vote count would be illegal, though the law allows for recounts at specific polling stations where irregularities are reported.

Mr Calderon, of National Action Party (Pan), has said he will respect the tribunal's decision, but in the meantime is making preparations for government.

He has named two senior aides to head his transitional team, and is planning a victory tour of Mexico.

Electoral observers from the European Union have said they found no irregularities in the vote count.