Candidate in Mexico to block elections unless allowed to run

A Mexican politician whose candidacy was canceled by regulatory authorities threatened on Sunday to block the election in his state unless he is permitted to run, the Associated Press reports.

Félix Salgado is running for governorship of the Mexican state of Guerrero. He was accused of rape by two women. His party, the Morena party which is the same as Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, allowed him to continue with his race.

However, election regulators in late March ordered that Salgado be taken off the ballot due to a failure to report campaign spending the AP reports. Mexico’s electoral court ordered the Federal Electoral Institute (FEI) to reconsider their decision last week.

Salgado, the former mayor of the beach resort town Acapulco, has not personally addressed the rape allegations against him, the AP reports, though his lawyer has denied them. He has not been charged.

López Obrador defended Salgado, calling objections to his candidacy “an attack on democracy.”

“If we are on the ballot, there will be elections,” Salgado told supporters in Guerrero after leading a caravan of protestors to the FEI’s office in Mexico City on Sunday.

“If are not on the ballot, there will not be any elections,” Salgado said.

The AP notes that Salgado is not making an empty threat. Guerrero is an embattled state overrun with violence and drug gangs and many elections have been previously disrupted. Past governors have been forced out of office before finishing their terms. Salgado was previously filmed getting into a confrontation with police in 2000.

Mexico’s state and federal mid-term elections will take place on June 6.