(Mexico City) Mexico’s electoral authority put a stop to the referendum project that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wanted to organize next April on his stay in power until the end of his term in 2024 on Friday.
“These are delaying tactics”, warned the Mexican president of the left, follower of popular consultations, during his morning press conference even before the decision of the National Electoral Institute (INE).
By six votes to five, the INE stopped the preparations for this consultation, initially scheduled for April 10, citing a lack of budget.
“With the money we have, we simply cannot organize” a popular consultation on the revocation of the presidential mandate, said INE president Lorenzo Cordova.
This is only a pause in the preparations for the popular consultation and “not a suspension”, he insisted.
The INE says it will continue to study the signatures it receives in favor of the referendum.
An association close to power, “Que siga la democracia” (“Let democracy live”) claims to have collected by itself 3.7 million signatures in favor of this “democratic exercise”. The association denounces “an INE attack against democracy in Mexico”.
Leaders of the ruling Movement for National Regeneration (Morena) party have warned that they will appeal to the Federal Electoral Tribunal.
President Lopez Obrador recalled that the Supreme Court had ruled that its “revocatory consultation” project respected the Constitution.
Elected in 2018 for a single six-year term, the president still enjoys a popularity rating of over 60%.
Since his election, the former mayor of Mexico City has organized several popular consultations. The last one last August proposed to sue its five predecessors. The participation rate did not exceed 7.1%. The required quorum is 40%.