EU observers say no major fraud at Mexico vote

MEXICO CITY, July 8 (Reuters) There was no major fraud or irregularity in Mexico's presidential election, European Union observers said, despite a court challenge to the result by the leftist who came in second.

EU observers who visited a third of the country's 300 electoral districts during voting last Sunday ''did not report incidents or irregularities that could cloud the transparency of the counting process or affect the results,'' Ignacio Salafranca, head of the EU team, told reporters yesterday.

After a tense recount, conservative Felipe Calderon was ruled the winner over leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who says there were major irregularities and is taking his case to court.

There were minor problems in the vote count, but nothing that would change the result, said Salafranca, a conservative deputy in the European parliament.

He said a vote-for-vote recount would have been more accurate than the count of vote tally sheets that was carried out on Wednesday, but acknowledged that Mexican law does not allow for a recount of every single vote.

Lopez Obrador has called for a vote-for-vote recount.

After a nasty election campaign and a dramatic recount, the electoral body on Thursday said Calderon won with 35.89 percent of the vote while Lopez Obrador received 35.31 percent.

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