MEXICO CITY (AFP) ― Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday rejected the victory of rival Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico’s presidential election as “fraudulent.”

“We cannot accept a fraudulent result, nobody can accept that,” Lopez Obrador said at a press conference in the capital, claiming that Sunday’s vote was “filthy.”

Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party declared victory late Sunday after the first official results showed him with 38 percent of the vote, against 31 percent for Lopez Obrador from the Party of the Democratic Revolution.

Lopez Obrador claimed the PRI spent millions of pesos buying votes for their candidates, and that the news media heavily favored Pena Nieto and the PRI.

“We will provide evidence for these claims and will file appropriate legal action,” said Lopez Obrador, emphasizing that he and his supporters will first scrutinize the balloting information with election officials.

In 2006, when Lopez Obrador ran for president and lost by less than one percent, he cried foul and organized protests that paralyzed Mexico City for more than a month.