Mexico Recount Confirms It: Pena Nieto Won

The official count of Mexico's presidential election has confirmed the victory of Enrique Pena Nieto, the candidate seeking to return the former autocratic ruling party to power after a 12-year hiatus. The Federal Electoral Institute reported late yesterday that with nearly 100% of the ballot boxes counted—and about half of them double-checked due to the possibility of fraud—Pena Nieto had around 38% of the vote and leftist rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was second with around 31%.

The count by the country's electoral authority will almost certainly become the target of legal challenges by Obrador, who alleges Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, engaged in vote-buying that illegally tilted millions of votes. The final vote count must be certified in September by the Federal Electoral Tribunal, which has declined to overturn previously contested elections, including a 2006 presidential vote that was far closer than Sunday's. (More Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador stories.)