President of the INE talks about the revocation of the mandate and the resources to do it 3:35
(CNN Spanish) --
Next Sunday, April 10, the mandate revocation consultation will be held in Mexico, a referendum promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador so that the country's electorate —both in Mexico and abroad— decide if you want your government to remain in power.
The revocation of the mandate will be considered valid if at least 40% of the people registered on the nominal list of voters participate.
By March 18, the nominal list was made up of more than 93 million Mexicans, according to data from the National Electoral Institute of Mexico (INE), for which more than 37 million votes would be needed in favor of the revocation.
How to vote for the revocation of AMLO's mandate from abroad?
Regarding the need for a 40% stake, López Obrador said at the end of 2021 that "even if I don't reach 40 and I lose, that is, if people say I'm leaving, I'm leaving. Why? Because you can't govern without the support, without the backing of the people, and even less so when a transformation is taking place. If I don't have the support of the people, I can't do anything. (...) A strong government, not authoritarian, but strong because of its popular support, can make major changes."
But how did we get here?
In March 2019, López Obrador signed a letter addressed to the Mexican people in which he established that a consultation would be held in 2021 to ask citizens whether or not he should continue with his mandate or resign.
"Certainly, I was elected to exercise the presidency for a six-year term but, as the Magna Carta shows, the people have the right to change the form of their government at all times; that is, the people put and the people take away," López wrote. Workshop.
However, the INE temporarily suspended the mandate revocation consultation due to lack of budget at the end of 2021.
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Strictly speaking, the mandate revocation consultation is an instrument of citizen participation that was published by the Executive in the Official Gazette of the Federation on September 14, 2021 - prior approval of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic in that same mes—, and that was requested by a segment of the Mexican population to determine the anticipated conclusion in the performance of the president of Mexico, based on the loss of confidence.
In addition, it is a measure promoted by the president of Mexico, and included in the Mexican Constitution in December 2019. "Today it is important to remember that the revocation of a mandate, in accordance with article 35 of the Constitution, is a right of citizenship and not a prerogative of the ruler or of the political parties," said the INE's chief advisor, Lorenzo Córdova, during an extraordinary session of the institution's General Council in February.
López Obrador said it was a "peaceful, legal and legitimate" way to resolve differences.
"I am interested in the democratic process, the fact that we leave this democratic method established and that it becomes a habit," López Obrador said during a press conference held this Friday in the central state of Tlaxcala.
The INE authorizes just over 57,000 boxes for revocation of mandate in Mexico, less than half of what the law establishes
For his part, historian and political analyst José Antonio Crespo told CNN about the April 10 consultation that "the revocation of the mandate makes no sense, nobody wants him to leave, just a few."
"We could save a lot of money there. However, they insist on doing it because it is really a campaign for their image, to enhance their image again, to recover political capital that they have lost to some extent and try to transfer it to their candidate. or candidate already when the presidential elections come in 2024," added Crespo.
"I believe that the worst thing that can happen politically to López Obrador is that he loses his party in 2024, because everything he has said about his historic project would fall apart, about a peaceful revolution that according to him he is carrying out, because it would be 'hey, it didn't work out so well that at the first change the town took it down,'" he concluded.
The INE has a budget of just over US$78.2 million (1,567 million Mexican pesos) for the organization of the call for the vote to revoke the mandate. The initial cost was just over US$191 .2 million (3,830 million Mexican pesos), according to figures from the INE.
The electoral institution reported on Tuesday in a statement that it approved the installation of just over 57,500 polling stations throughout Mexico for the consultation that will take place on April 10.
According to the INE, there will be enough ballots for Mexicans registered on the nominal list to attend this exercise.
The information on the location of the boxes will be available on the portal: https://ubicatucasilla.ine.mx/
CNN's Natalia Cano contributed to this report.
AMLOAndrés Manuel López ObradorGovernment of Mexico