Since narrowly losing Mexico's presidential election, Andres Manuel Lopez 
Obrador has led massive protests claiming that fraud robbed him of victory, 
begun setting up a parallel government and even named a cabinet. 
 
 
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    Former presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador 
 waves after being sworn in as the country's 'legitimate president' in 
 front of thousands of supporters at the Zocalo plaza in Mexico City, 
 Mexico, Monday, Nov. 20, 2006. [AP]
  
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On Monday afternoon (Tuesday 
morning Beijing time), the fiery leftist plans to be sworn in as "Mexico's 
legitimate president" thumbing his nose at the country's highest electoral 
court, which declared conservative Felipe Calderon the presidential election 
winner by less than 1 percentage point. 
Based in Mexico City, the parallel government will not try to collect taxes 
or make laws. It will have one objective to hamper Calderon during his six-year 
term that begins on December 1. His supporters have pledged to block Calderon's 
swearing-in ceremony before the Mexican Congress, although they have not 
announced how they plan to do so. 
"We're not going to give the right free rein," Lopez Obrador said in a final 
stop in the southeastern state of Veracruz this weekend. "We're going to 
confront it." 
According to Lopez Obrador's website, the campaign has opened bank accounts 
where Mexicans can donate money for his parallel government. 
But it remains to be seen whether the man who claims the elections were 
tainted to favour the rich can keep up momentum. 
Besieged by protests since the disputed July 2 presidential elections, many 
Mexicans are tired of political strife. 
The upheaval has taken a heavy toll on the country's tourism industry, one of 
Mexico's main income generators. According to Mexico Tourism Department, the 
number of foreign tourists visiting the country between January and September of 
2006 was down 4.3 per cent from the same period in 2005. 
The US State Department has urged travellers to exercise caution while 
visiting Mexico and to avoid the southern city of Oaxaca, where a leftist 
protest not directly related to the presidential dispute has created chaos. 
Columnist Rene Aviles called on Calderon to put things in order when he takes 
office. Outgoing President Vicente Fox has been criticized for his hands-off 
approach to the conflicts. 
"If Calderon wants to govern without so many blunders, he should start with a 
firm hand," Aviles wrote in the Mexico City newspaper Excelsior on Sunday. 
Lopez Obrador also faces a big challenge in uniting his Democratic Revolution 
Party. Some within Mexico's main leftist party have started to distance 
themselves from his civil resistance campaign, fearing that they will lose 
support. 
Others say Mexico needs strong action to focus more attention on its millions 
of poor and Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, is the man to do that. 
Lopez Obrador's platform resonated with many Mexicans, forcing the 
business-friendly Calderon from Fox's conservative National Action Party to take 
note. He has borrowed heavily from ideas in Lopez Obrador's legislative agenda, 
including calling for universal health care. 
The leftist's parallel government "could create the organization that is 
necessary to steer the country in a new economic direction," columnist Rosa 
Albina wrote in the Mexico City newspaper Reforma on Sunday.