After a partial recount, Mexico's election officials confirmed Enrique Peña Nieto, governor of Mexico state, to be the successor to President Felipe Calderon. His victory, which marks the first time the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is back in power since its seven decades of rule pre-President Vicente Fox, was attained with 38 percent of the vote; leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador came in second with 32 percent and conservative candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota, of Calderon's National Action Party, got 25 percent. Loperz Obrador, who refused to concede to Calderon six years ago, predictably has claimed fraud and protested this month's vote. Among his accusations are that the PRI bought votes with pre-paid gift cards.
Peña Nieto will be sworn in Dec. 1.
The Los Angeles Times delves into the new telegenic president:
In public appearances, Peña Nieto the politician is a well-rehearsed master of gesture, an attractive if sometimes robotic speaker who never veers too far from the script. If an interview in a bustling suite at a Mexico City hotel just three days after his election is any indication, Peña Nieto the person also holds his cards close to the vest.
Tended by a platoon of aides in suits with BlackBerrys, he was reluctant to talk about himself other than in perfunctory terms. (The aides warned not to even ask.) Asked to share a bit about his personal life, he seemed to be reciting his resume.
"I'm not going to work so that Peña Nieto is the best known or most recognized in the world," he said, with no apparent sense of irony. "I'm going to work so that Mexico has results."
Many in Mexico still wonder about Peña Nieto's convictions, what he's really thinking and the details of the changes he promises to bring to Mexico.
Learn more about the new president of Mexico.
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