The popular consultation promoted by the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador and that opened the door to judge the ex-governors held this Sunday has concluded with several readings: an insignificant participation - 8%, according to the estimates of the electoral body -, a overwhelming victory of the "yes" - the option chosen by around 90% of those who voted - and the consolidation of the confrontation between the Government and Morena, who encouraged the plebiscite and the National Electoral Institute, the autonomous body in charge of organizing it.
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From early in the morning, the empty electoral centers throughout the country presaged a low participation in the popular consultation by which Mexicans had to answer an ambiguous question that opened the door to judge the five leaders who preceded López Obrador for their programs and decisions. The consultation, which had received strong criticism from the opposition and various sectors due to the uncertain consequences, ended up increasing the tension between the ruling party and the INE, a body they have accused of boycotting it. Paradoxically, despite the very low turnout, both Morena and the electoral body tried to sell the vote throughout the day as a success simply because it was held. For the first time,Mexicans this Sunday had the opportunity to express their opinion in an official referendum at the federal level.
For it to be binding, 40% of eligible citizens, some 37.5 million voters, had to vote, a figure that seemed unlikely given the little interest of Mexicans towards the consultation. This Sunday, while 57,000 ballot boxes were installed throughout the country, in the General Council of the INE the tension between the members of that entity and the ruling party was staged. The representative of Morena before the INE, Sergio Gutiérrez, accused the president of the entity, Lorenzo Córdova, and the counselor Ciro Murayama of sabotaging the popular consultation and organizing it "reluctantly", by installing only a third of the voting tables regarding to the legislative and local elections on June 6, where there were 160,000 ballot boxes.
“It strikes me that time and again we see lies and lies that seek to misinform.
The lies elsewhere, not in a democratic context.
Let's bet that the day is a success, let's not dynamite it, ”Córdova later declared, visibly upset, after voting at a polling place in Coyoacán, in southern Mexico City.
Both he and the INE advisers have multiplied their public statements this Sunday to defend the role of their body in the face of criticism from the ruling party.
The version of the electoral body is that they have done what they could with the resources they had, after Congress denied them an additional budget for the consultation.
"We could not put more boxes, as we wanted, because they prevented us by not giving us more resources," Córdova said in one of his statements.
Among those who have criticized the work of the INE and the obstacles that, in their opinion, they have put in order to achieve the necessary participation has been the first lady, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, who regretted that she had not been able to vote in a special polling place (the intended for people in transit) to which you went. “I have always been very respectful of Mrs. Gutiérrez Müller, maybe she is not informed. Your address and that of the president were updated a few months ago, ”the INE president replied at noon on Sunday and urged him to participate in the consultation in the box corresponding to his residence.
López Obrador has also not participated in the consultation despite having promoted the plebiscite himself because he was on tour in the Sierra de Nayarit where he did not have access to special boxes. After several comings and goings about his participation - initially he was reluctant to do so because of his position and so that the opposition would not accuse him of "vindictive" and then said that, if he did so, he would vote against - on Saturday he confirmed that he could not do so for being on a trip.
The president has always been firm in promoting the participation of Mexicans because he considered that it would be a great victory for the application of justice and the strengthening of participatory democracy.
López Obrador has also proposed a reform to revoke the presidents' mandate in the middle of their term and has said that he himself will do so voluntarily next year, in what will be a review of his mandate two years before the elections. presidential.
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