A Mexico poll that allows Mexicans to vote in the middle of the year on whether the president should stay in office has turned into a weird political game involving all three branches of government.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced on Monday that his supporters had recruited 10 million signatories who agreed to the referendum more than the legal requirement that could jeopardize his future.
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It is strange because there is little obvious reason to conduct a referendum and the constitution does not require it. Lopez Obrador gets good ratings of about two-thirds of those who voted and will no doubt win the vote to run for the second half of his six-year term.
But the Mexico president’s political style consists of regular campaigns: He has been in a non-stop campaign from 2005 to 2018, and he enjoys it. So he wants a referendum, even though it will cost about $ 200 million and election officials say they do not have enough money.
The matter even reached the Supreme Court, which ordered the National Electoral Institute to still hold a referendum on April 10.
And some members of Congress, led by President Morena’s party, filed a criminal complaint accusing election officials of obstructing democracy.
Now that they have signed, the president is considering the matter, and he seems to wish that criminal complaint could be stopped.
Let the people decide, let them be the people, “said Lopez Obrador.
The opposition National Action Party called the interviews part of the more expensive and unconstitutional political theatre and said the money would be better spent on job creation, reviving the epidemic economy and eradicating poverty.
Patricio Morelos, a professor at Monterrey Technological University Mexico, said Lopez Obrador was determined to win the vote because it was one of his campaign promises. It will also work to strengthen his political base ahead of the 2022 gubernatorial elections and the 2024 presidential election.
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The National Electoral Institute wrote in a statement that the criminal complaint of members of Congress was an act of “intimidation and attack on our independence.
While the institution was independent and non-partisan, Lopez Obrador often accused its member of being a staunch opponent of his policies.
