The Two Leaders of Mexico

Mexico is likely to have two presidents, although only one of them will be official.

The elections that took place in July saw Felipe Calderon receive the highest number of votes. His chief challenger, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, got just 234,000 votes fewer than Calderon. A total of 41 million votes were cast.

After a series of contentious weeks full of mass protests alleging electoral fraud, Lopez Obrador spoke at a mass rally in Mexico City on Sunday and named himself his country's "real president." He said he would name his own Cabinet ministers and travel around the country as its leader. He urged his supporters to allow him to pursue diplomatic measures and not persist in the mass street protests that have marked the country lately.

Calderon is set to succeed outgoing President Vicente Fox on December 1. The tens of thousands of protesters who have tried to disrupt government proceedings for several weeks have vowed to swear in Lopez Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico City, as their leader on November 20.

Lopez Obrador

Calderon