Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's federal election court today will decide most of the remaining challenges to the July 2 presidential race, whose results showed governing party candidate Felipe Calderon won. A final ruling on the validity of the vote must take place before Sept. 6.

The court, in a session that began at 9:20 a.m. New York time, will resolve 375 claims, including allegations by opposition candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of ballot- stuffing. The court's seven judges also will make public the result of a second court-ordered partial recount.

The judges likely will rule against Lopez Obrador, 52, and ratify Calderon, 44, as the winner of the election, said Todd Eisenstadt, a professor of government at American University in Washington. The July recount showed Calderon beat Lopez Obrador by 243,934 ballots, or 0.6 percentage point.

``The evidence that Lopez Obrador's team has presented as proof of fraud so far has been very flimsy,'' Eisenstadt said.

Mexico's next president is set to take office in December.

The court reviewed ballots from 11,839 of more than 130,000 polling places between Aug. 9 and Aug. 12 in response to allegations by Lopez Obrador of irregularities and fraud. The justices unanimously rejected Lopez Obrador's petition for a full review of ballots. All ballots were hand counted in July and the tallies double checked by 900,000 private citizens trained by the electoral institute.

Campaign Promises

Calderon, a former energy minister of President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, vowed during the campaign to lower income taxes and attract more investment to boost job creation while maintaining spending restraints that helped cut the annual inflation rate to 3 percent from 9 percent in 2000.

Lopez Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico City, promised to boost government spending to help the poor and provide stipends to single mothers and the elderly.

Mexico's peso rose 0.2 percent to 10.9475 to the dollar at 10:40 a.m. New York time, compared with 10.9735 by the end of last week. The yield on Mexico's peso-denominated bond due in 2014 rose 0.02 percentage point to 8.28 percent, according to Santander Central Hispano SA.

`Legitimate President'

Lopez Obrador, who says the court-ordered recount showed evidence of widespread fraud, yesterday told thousands of supporters gathered in Mexico City's main square that a National Democratic Convention he's convoking on Sept. 16 may elect a ``legitimate president.''

The convention will be part of demonstrations Lopez Obrador has organized since July to protest the election results.

``This is a strategy in case the court says the election was valid and declares Calderon the winner,'' said Manuel Camacho Solis, one of the top lawyers of Lopez Obrador's team, in an interview with Mexico City-based Radio W today.

The justices today may annul ballots from polling places that have been impugned by Lopez Obrador's coalition as well as Calderon's party. Calderon's party impugned about 500 polling places, saying unaccredited officials illegally worked in those locations.

Calderon's lawyers have repeatedly said the partial recount would change the final tally of the election by no more than 1,500 votes either way, depending on whether some ballots are nullified.

``There won't be any surprises,'' German Martinez, who represents Calderon's party in the federal electoral institute, said in an interview with Radio W today. ``There's no possibility that the results will be reversed. We're very confident.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Patrick Harrington in Mexico City at pharrington8@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 28, 2006 10:45 EDT