“This country does not move forward with elections, it moves forward with social mobilization.”
-Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Election nights mark the end of a political cycle and the beginning of a new one for competing candidates. For the winner, it is the de facto start of his administration. The loser, however, has two options. One is to concede defeat and go home to lick the wounds and enjoy retirement living. Francisco Labastida Ochoa, presidential candidate in the 2000 Mexican elections, was famously asked once, “What did defeat taste like to you? Pain, sadness?” “No,” he responded, “it tasted like tequila.” The other option for the losing candidate is to disavow the results and refuse to concede. “To hell with institutions!” exclaimed in 2006 the current president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), when the electoral tribunal ruled that his demand to invalidate the elections of that year was unfounded. This article deals with the second option.
