Mexico presidential runner-up Anaya accepts defeat to leftist

Mexican presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya accepted his election defeat by anti-establishment Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, joining the frontrunner's other main rival in congratulating him on his win.

Lopez Obrador has won the vote by a large margin, according to exit polls, in a shift to the Left for Latin America's second-largest economy and a major break with the two parties that have governed Mexico for nearly a century, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and conservative National Action Party (PAN).

Anaya, who ran for a PAN-led coalition, said yesterday that he had called Lopez Obrador to concede. "I recognise his victory and express my congratulations, and I wish him the greatest of success, for the good of Mexico," he told supporters.