Mexicans voted this Sunday, in the first recall referendum in the country’s history, to continue or not in office of President Andrés López Obrador halfway through his term, in an election in which an accolade to the president was anticipated.
The first official calculations indicated that 89.3% spoke in favor of the continuity of the head of state and 9.3% preferred the revocation, with 1.4% null votes when 4.3% of the minutes had been computed. of the voting centers, reported the National Electoral Institute (INE) on its website.
The computed minutes included the votes of 0.56% of all registered citizens, which allowed projecting a participation close to 12%, insufficient to consider the result of the consultation binding.
“Let no one forget that the people are the ones who rule, the people put and the people take away,” said López Obrador before the press after voting at the Art Museum of the Ministry of Finance, a few steps from the presidential palace.
AMLO, as he is known by the initials of his name, managed to have the consultation included in the Constitution in 2019 as an antidote to “bad governments.”
“It is going to help us so that no one at any level on the scale feels absolute,” added the ruler, elected for six years.
The consultation was promoted by López Obrador himself, who in the polls has a 60% positive image.
However, and as announced days ago, The head of state annulled his vote by writing the phrase “Viva Zapata” on the ballot, alluding to Emiliano Zapata, one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution at the beginning of the 20th century.
“I can’t vote for one thing or the other, but I do have to go vote, because a Democrat always has to participate when it comes to making decisions,” he explained then.
Previous polls showed that the continuity of the left-wing president could reach up to 70% of the votes this Sunday.
However, the same surveys indicated that turnout in the referendum would be low, between 13% and 16% of those eligible to vote, and would not reach the necessary 37 million voters, equivalent to 40% of the voter registry, so that the result is binding.
That fact, by itself, would ratify the 68-year-old president in office.
Perhaps for this reason, López Obrador urged citizens to go to the polls.
“The best political system is democracy, there is nothing better, and it is a way of life; there must be democracy forever, in the family, at school, at work, in the unions, and of course in public life; you have to participate”said.
“The day is being successful,” said the president of the National Electoral Institute (INE), Lorenzo Córdova, in his first assessment, but he avoided reporting data on the level of participation.
In Mexico, with 126 million inhabitants and more than 92 million registered, voting is not compulsory.
The polls closed at 6:00 p.m. throughout the country (between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. in Argentina, according to the three time zones in force in Mexico).
The INE began to publish results on its website once the voting centers in the far east of the country closed, at 10 p.m. Argentine time.
“AMLO, you are not alone!”, prayed some of the few posters displayed in Mexico Cityaccording to the AFP news agency.
“Finish and go!” and “Empty ballot boxes!”, opposition politicians responded on social networks and users who called for abstentionclaiming that the referendum is just an act of “propaganda”.
Voters were asked on the ballot: “Do you agree that Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of the United Mexican States, have his mandate revoked due to loss of confidence or remain in the Presidency of the Republic until finish your period?
The recall referendum was incorporated into the Constitution in 2019 at the initiative of the president, leader of the Morena party.
The signatures to summon him were mostly from official supporters.
The president accuses the INE of sabotaging the referendum in complicity with “the conservatives” (as he calls the opposition), for which he announced a reform so that its members and those of the electoral court are elected by popular vote and not by the Chamber of Deputies. Deputies.
The INE, which unsuccessfully demanded a larger budget, said it would install some 57,500 polling stations against the 161,000 in a federal election.
On a very quiet day, the most novel incident was that the head of the observer mission of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Peruvian Fernando Tuesta, tested positive for coronavirus and had to isolate himself immediately, as well as a person from his team.
Both were “well”, under medical supervision and observing “the care protocols established by the government”, according to OAS sources cited by the ANSA agency.
