By
The Associated Press
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico - Manuel Andrade was declared the winner of Tabasco state's disputed race for governor - an important victory for Mexico's embattled ruling party, but a blow to opposition members who charged the vote was marred by fraud.
State election officials announced late Sunday that Andrade had won the election by more than 8,000 votes. The announcement came a week after the vote, which had been too close to call.
Preliminary results said Andrade had 44 percent of the vote to 43 percent for opposition candidate Raul Ojeda of the Democratic Revolution Party.
Andrade's victory could help outgoing Gov. Roberto Madrazo in his quest to become president of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. The election in this oil-rich, Gulf of Mexico state was an important test for the party, which recently lost its first presidential election since its creation in 1929. It remains in power until the new president takes office.
The party, which never admitted losing any statewide race before 1989, has also lost several gubernatorial races in recent years - most recently in southern Chiapas state, a traditional ruling party stronghold.
The presidential victory in July by Vicente Fox of the National Action Party sparked an ongoing battle for control of the ruling party.
Madrazo has tried to use the election here as a demonstration of his popularity, but observer groups and opposition parties have accused him of the irregularities and fraud that were common in the elections of Mexico's past, when the ruling party was the dominant party.
Madrazo denied claims of fraud, saying since the election last week that Andrade was the true winner.
Sunday's announcement was immediately disputed by opposition parties. Democratic Revolution and National Action representatives resigned their spots on the electoral council.
Tearing up a copy of the electoral law, Democratic Revolution's Lorena Villavicencio said she refused to "certify fraud."
Yet the ruling party's representative, Carlos Jimenez, said: "We won the election, and we won it without fraud."
At an opposition rally earlier in the day, Ojeda said he had won and he asked Fox, who will be sworn into office on Dec. 1, to recognize his victory. "We call on Vicente Fox to comply with his promise to guarantee democracy in the entire country," he told a cheering crowd.
Opposition parties and election observers accused the ruling party of buying votes and transporting voters to the polls a week ago. A national election monitoring group, Civil Alliance, said its observers had seen election officials changing vote totals and other irregularities in more than 10 percent of the 2,110 voting places.
Election officials denied accusations of fraud.
The allegations are familiar. Opponents claimed Madrazo spent several times the legal limit and used illegal campaign contributions to win his gubernatorial campaign in 1997.
Federal prosecutors said there was evidence supporting the allegations, but they left the case for state prosecutors. Those prosecutors, appointed by Madrazo, dismissed the case.
