MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) – More than one million supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rallied here yesterday to denounce alleged election fraud they blamed for his defeat in the July 2 presidential elections.,/B>

According to the latest government officials, some 1.2 million Lopez Obrador backers filled the capital’s streets chanting “no to fraud” and calling for a vote-by-vote recount of the 41.7 million ballots cast in the election.

Conservative Felipe Calderon bested Lopez Obrador in the polls by a bare 0.58 percentage point margin, and Lopez Obrador has formally filed complaints with the elections court citing evidence of cheating.

On July 18 his Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) sent an 836-page document to the court claiming that the vote was invalid. They have also supplied videos and other alleged evidence of cheating to back their claim.

Meanwhile Lopez Obrador, the popular former mayor of Mexico City, has also taken his campaign to the mass media and the streets to pressure a full recount of ballots, claiming that he was the real winner of the election.

The rally Sunday was the largest for Lopez Obrador since the election. On July 16 he drew 800,000 people out to protest in his support across the country, and has since called for a campaign of “peaceful resistance”.

The elections court, which has the power to call a partial or a full vote recount, must declare the official victor in the poll by September 6. The winner will assume the presidency on December 1.