Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador says he will not congratulate Joe Biden as America’s President-elect until President Donald Trump’s legal challenge is resolved by the courts.
He stated this Saturday as major news networks called the race for the Democratic Party candidate after he picked up 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania, which took him over the 270 threshold required for victory.
Mexico is America’s top trade partner, with annual trade between them hitting $600 billion dollars.
Addressing the media, the Mexican President said, “With regard to the US election, we are going to wait until all the legal matters have been resolved.
“I can’t congratulate one candidate or the other. I want to wait until the electoral process is over.”
López Obrador’s statement came as Trump filed several lawsuits to challenge the results, alleging electoral fraud in many states.
The Mexican president said he was being cautious having experienced electoral fraud in his first two presidential bids – 2006 and 2012 – before eventually succeeding in 2018.
In contrast, Lopez Obrador was fast to congratulate Bolivia’s President, Evo Morales, who won reelection last year amid accusations of electoral fraud by opponents.
The Guardian quoted Mexican officials as saying that the president was reluctant to congratulate Biden in order not to provoke Trump, whose current term ends on January 20, 2021.
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