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Protesters in Mexico City on Wednesday alleged fraud in the presidential poll. The winning party, the PRI, denied vote buying and other allegations.

MEXICO CITY—Mexican election officials Wednesday began reviewing votes at more than half of polling stations involved in Sunday's presidential vote, as one of the losing candidates called for a full recount after claiming there was widespread vote buying and other irregularities. 

The Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, said the recount was unlikely to significantly alter the preliminary results, in which Enrique Peña Nieto of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, won with 38% of the tally versus 31.5% for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who hasn't accepted the results.

IFE officials haven't granted Mr. Lopez Obrador his request for a full recount, but halfway through the review late Wednesday, they said Mr. Peña Nieto had gained one percentage point.

Under a change to Mexican election law in 2007—spurred by complaints of fraud by Mr. López Obrador after the 2006 election—officials must recount votes in any polling station where the margin of victory was less than one percentage point, or where there is any kind of doubt, such as a mismatch between some numbers, or votes for only one party. 

"This is the biggest exercise in openness and transparency in Mexican electoral history," IFE executive secretary Edmundo Jacobo told reporters.

Mr. López Obrador, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, says the vote was fraudulent, alleging everything from electronic vote tampering to unfair media coverage toward the PRI, which ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000 and was known for its vote-rigging practices. 

But the former Mexico City mayor hasn't offered proof of his allegations. The other losing candidate, Josefina Vázquez Mota, of the ruling National Action Party, who got 24% of the vote, has accepted the result. An observer mission from the Organization of American States praised Mexico's vote as exemplary. Heads of state from around the world have congratulated Mr. Peña Nieto. 

One notable allegation involves a retail chain called Soriana. In the days after Sunday's vote, thousands of people turned up to Soriana outlets near Mexico City. Many said they were redeeming gift cards allegedly given to them by PRI campaigners in exchange for their vote. 

At a Soriana in Mexico City's poor Iztapalapa neighborhood, Veronica Ramírez, 38, said she had been offered prepaid Soriana cards said to be worth 500 pesos (roughly $40) on Thursday and Friday before the election by campaigners wearing PRI shirts and handing out political materials. She said the campaigners didn't specifically ask for her vote but seemed to be giving the cards out as a goodwill gesture. 

So many shoppers turned up at the store on Monday and Tuesday that the store closed on Wednesday to restock. 

Soriana took out full-page ads in several Mexican newspapers to dismiss allegations it was helping the PRI, saying the cards were party of a loyalty program offered by a labor union that gave workers discounts, not free merchandise.

Other Soriana shoppers on Wednesday said they had been approached by all three parties with offers of everything from food to phone cards.

Leonora Cordero, 47, worked as an election observer in the same neighborhood and said she had seen campaigners dressed in shirts for Mr. López Obrador's PRD trying to buy votes. Rather than Soriana cards, she said they were offering free breakfasts, encouraging those who accepted to vote for the party."It wasn't just the PRI giving things away that day," she said.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Peña Nieto reiterated that he had won fairly. "The result of the election is clear," he said. On Wednesday, a Peña Nieto adviser, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, said in a news conference that the PRI hadn't bought votes through Soriana gift cards or in any other way. The two other parties denied accusations of vote buying.

Mexico's elections have come a long way since the days when the PRI would carry out tactics like Operation Carousel, where the same group of voters would be taken to multiple voting stations, or Operation Tamale, where voters would stuff various ballots at a time into one box.

On Election day, every polling station is manned by citizens picked at random by the election agency, plus representatives from every major party. Voters have an election agency I.D. with a picture, and get their fingers stained with indelible ink to make sure they vote only once. The vote is counted openly in front of all parties and volunteers and the result is posted outside the station publicly. 

The IFE agency makes a preliminary count from each polling station. In the days that follow, the ballot boxes are taken to IFE headquarters, where the agency compares its tallies against the preliminary result. If any question arises, the boxes are opened and the votes recounted. 

Still, the legacy of PRI vote rigging made a lasting impression, causing many Mexicans to still mistrust election officials. 

The vote-buying allegations at the Soriana caught the attention of Mexico's student protesters, who spent much of the campaign accusing broadcaster Grupo Televisa SAB of being in league with the PRI, which the broadcaster denied. On Tuesday the group began demonstrations in front of several Soriana stores and was discussing calls for a boycott of the chain. 

"Soriana is just one example of how business interests have lined up to support politicians," said student leader Carlos Brito. "The PRI once gave out bags of food. Now they've modernized into the gift card business."

Adding to Soriana's woes was an attack claimed by hacking group Anonymous that brought down the company's website for several hours Tuesday. 

Alianza Civica, a nonprofit that monitored the election, said that in its exit polls 14% of voters said they been approached by someone offering to buy their vote, the highest levels since the group began election monitoring in 1994. The most common tactic was offering food or discounts on food. "It is important to note this was done by all of the main political parties," said Beatriz Camacho, the group's director, adding that voters polled said the vast majority of offers came from the PRI.

Ms. Camacho said the surge in vote buying seemed to be linked with changes to electoral laws in 2007 which restricted how much airtime parties could buy on television and put other restrictions on campaigning. That encouraged parties to use excess funds that might have gone to ads for vote buying.