Before winning the 2018 Mexican General Election he had previously ran for President of Mexico in 2006 and 2012, in both cases he lost the elections first in a narrow loss of 243,934 votes to the victor Felipe Calderon and by a wider margin of 3,192,281 votes to the current Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Following the 2006 General Election Lopez Obrador held many post election victory rallies and protests claiming to be the 'legitimate president' of Mexico after rejecting the official results by causing the closure of the Paseo de la Reforma main road in Mexico City. In 2012 he again rejected the official results alleging vote buying and bribery by his rival Pena Nieto.