Mexico: President López Obrador announced a referendum to revoke his mandate

08/02/2021 2:44 PM

• Clarín.com

• World

Updated 08/02/2021 2:44 PM

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that he will

promote in March a referendum

on the revocation of his mandate by downplaying the low participation that the referendum on the prosecution of former presidents had the day before, which did not obtain the necessary votes to activate.

In the midst of criticism from his opponents - who considered that the consultation was a "failure" - López Obrador dismissed the low turnout of voters,

which reached 7%, and affirmed that it was a "triumph"

that more than 6 participated. million voters.

"Democracy will never fail

," said the president during his morning conference from the western state of Jalisco and argued that the referendum the day before was "transcendent" because it represented "the formal legal beginning of a process of citizen participation in the framework of participatory democracy ''.

In this regard, López Obrador announced that he will promote a popular consultation in March to ask Mexicans

if they want him to continue his term until 2024 or to resign

.

"A true Democrat does not have to be so attached to power." The president began his six-year term in December 2018.

The popular consultation of the government had little participation.

Reuters photo

Referring to the causes that led to the low participation, the president attributed the responsibility to the National Electoral Institute (INE) and, without mentioning the electoral authorities, said that

"they were not enthusiastic about this consultation. They pretend to be democrats

."

López Obrador rejected the INE's argument that they

did not have a budget

to hold the referendum on the prosecution of the former president and stated that they could have asked state governments for resources to carry out the vote.

After the scrutiny of 99% of the 57,000 minutes, the INE announced on Monday that

the "yes" option reached 97% of the votes

while the "no" received 1.5%.

6,629,798 voters participated in the consultation, representing 7% of the electoral roll.

Little participation

The turnout was

well below the requirement of at least 40%

participation (37.5 million) established in the laws for the consultation to be binding for the federal Legislative and Executive powers.

Asked if the low participation limited the realization of legal proceedings against the former presidents, López Obrador said that it is an open issue and added that the judicial authorities can act at any time in case there is evidence. Likewise, he expressed that hopefully the legislators

can lower the cap of 40%

of participation to activate the processes that are submitted to consultation.

The president of the ruling party National Regeneration Movement (Morena), Mario Delgado, announced on Sunday that

before "the cry for justice"

of the people who voted overwhelmingly in favor of the prosecution of the former presidents, the organization will support the constitution of a "court of the people '', a "truth commission" and a "commission against impunity for the economic crimes of neoliberalism", and a "transitional justice" agenda against past human rights violations.

"People realized that the consultation was

a total farce, a deception

and one more manipulation," said the leader of the opposition National Action Party (PAN), Marko Cortés, on Monday, referring to the low turnout, and said in a statement that López Obrador used the referendum as a "ridiculous distractor" to make an "immoral waste" of some $ 25 million.

Some analysts have argued that regardless of the results,

the electoral process does not close the way

for the Judicial Power of the Federation and the Attorney General's Office to carry out any process against the former presidents of the last six six-year terms.

Promises

After three years in office, López Obrador

has fallen short on his main promise to root out corruption

, with few high-profile court cases open.

The corruption accusations made against Emilio Lozoya, former director of Pemex during the government of former President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) and other officials of that government have proven difficult to bring to trial.

Faced with this situation, analysts considered that López Obrador sought with the referendum

the blessing of the electorate to change course

and persecute the former presidents -Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and Vicente Fox (2000-2006) - who have been his harshest critics .

In total, Mexico

has six living former presidents

, the oldest of them Luis Echeverría, 99.

The statute of limitations has expired for many of the crimes they are charged with, most of which involve corruption, bribery, waste of state money and financial mismanagement.

Source: AP

PB

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