Mexico electoral court upholds Enrique Peña Nieto election victory
President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto speaks during a press conference on July 2, 2012 in Mexico City.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Enrique Peña Nieto of the center-left Institutional Revolutionary Party is expected to be sworn in as the next president of Mexico after the electoral court rejected claims of money laundering and vote buying in the July 1 presidential election, the Agence France-Presse reported.
The left-wing runner-up in the poll, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, had accused Peña Nieto of using illicit money to buy five million votes and ply voters with supermarket gift cards, chickens and bags of cement to secure their support.
But in a unanimous decision, the judges said late Thursday there was insufficient evidence of wrongdoing, Reuters reported.
"There is no proven vote buying, no evident coercion or illicit inducement," Justice Flavio Galvan said.
According to the official count, Peña Nieto won 38 percent of the vote while Lopez Obrador secured 31 percent.
The BBC reported there were “minor scuffles” between police and anti-PRI protesters outside the court after the decision was announced.
Lopez Obrador, a former mayor Mexico City and the runner-up in the 2006 presidential election, leads the Party of the Democratic Revolution.
Anti-PRI protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Mexico City and Guadalajara, the country’s second largest city, since the July 1 poll, accusing the media of bias and claiming Peña Nieto bought his way into the country’s highest office.
The PRI, which ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century and became a symbol for corruption and electoral fraud, has rejected accusations of corruption and money laundering.
More from GlobalPost: Coverage of Mexico's 2012 elections
The story you just read is accessible and free to all because thousands of listeners and readers contribute to our nonprofit newsroom. We go deep to bring you the human-centered international reporting that you know you can trust. To do this work and to do it well, we rely on the support of our listeners. If you appreciated our coverage this year, if there was a story that made you pause or a song that moved you, would you consider making a gift to sustain our work through 2024 and beyond?