The National Electoral Institute (INE) concluded this Monday afternoon with the counting of the votes of the Mandate Revocation consultation, in which the option “to follow” the president’s government Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador registered 91.86%, with 15 million 159,323 votes.
At the 6:00 p.m. cutoff, the INE detailed that recorded a citizen participation of 16 million 502,636 votesthat is, 17.7785% of the Electoral Registerfar from the 40% necessary for this democratic exercise to be binding.
Meanwhile, 1 million 63,209 people voted for López Obrador not to continue, compared to more than 15 million who supported him. The INE also registered 280,104 invalid votes.
In his morning conference, the chief executive celebrated his victory in the recall referendum that he himself promoted and accused the electoral authority of undermining citizen participation.
“Thank you very much with all my heart and we will continue until September 2024 if the creator, nature, science decides, because the people already wanted it,” the President said at the National Palace about the results.
The referendum sparked speculation from opponents of the government that it could be used to open the door to extending the presidential term, currently six years; although López Obrador has assured many times that he does not seek to extend his administration.
López Obrador said that he triumphed in the exercise despite what he described as a “boycott” and “trap” by the INE, which he has repeatedly accused during his government of being in favor of his opponents and has said that he will promote a reform so that they are citizens who appoint the electoral authorities.
“(It is) a paradox that those who should be promoting democracy act in an anti-democratic way,” he said.
The INE, accused by the government of installing fewer voting booths than usual and not promoting the referendum, has said that it was limited by a reduction in its budget by Congress, where the ruling Morena has a majority.
Analysts have said that López Obrador is likely to seize on the referendum result as a personal triumph in his attempt to push through a constitutional reform in the electricity sector that is expected to be defined in Congress this week, although he would not have enough votes to get it out. go ahead.
Given López Obrador’s comments, the president of the INELorenzo Córdova Vianello, commented that he was pleased that the President was “happy” with the results of the consultation and that the only “boycott” that was registered was the budget cut approved by Congress to be able to organize this exercise.
At a press conference, Córdova highlighted the work of the Electoral Institute in this process despite not having had the necessary resources.
“The INE made an extraordinary effort to be able to resolve the unfortunate situation in which the Chamber of Deputies and the federal government placed us, which by denying the necessary budget so that all the voting booths could be installed, constituted the main obstacle so that the Revocation of Mandate could be carried out successfully.
“Despite these obstacles, despite that boycott in which the INE was placed, the revocation of the mandate was carried out on time,” Lorenzo Córdova reiterated.
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