Revocation of Mandate: “A novel instrument with great potential”

The academic of the Universidad Iberoamericana León, Othón Partido Lara, shared with Infobae Mexico his analysis of the exercise of the Mandate Revocation

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO, 27FEBRERO2022.- Al rededor de 200 simpatizantes del presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador congregaron en el Zócalo para expresar su apoyo por su iniciativa a la reforma eléctrica y a la consulta de revocación de mandato. Como parte de la manifestación, también hubo consignas contra supuestos “opositores” del mandatario, entre ellos los consejeros del Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) y periodistas como Carmen Aristegui. FOTO: ANDREA MURCIA /CUARTOSCURO.COM

Mexicans bet this Sunday on the continuity of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of the country in the revocation of mandate consultation, and although participation citizen did not reach 20% and therefore will not be binding, he did emphasize that it was considerably higher than last year's Popular Consultation.

Between 90.3% and 91.9% of the voters who went to the polls voted for the president to remain in office for the remaining three years of his term, while between 6.4% and b7.8% preferred the revocation, reported the president of the National Electoral Institute (INE), Lorenzo Córdova.

Othón Partido Lara, an academic at the Universidad Iberoamericana León, considered that Sunday's day was useful given that it was a novel instrument that in few countries has been put into practice.

I think it has a lot of potential, but it's also hard to think that an instrument like this can debut with a very high turnout. You cannot compare this type of exercise with a constitutional election. They have different characteristics in their institutional architecture. For example, with regard to the previous consultation on prosecuting presidents, we did see significant progress.”

The doctor in Latin American Studies from UNAM considered that although there was a lot of attention between the federal government and the National Electoral Institute (INE), everyone should have been allowed to express themselves freely both for and against.

“There is an interesting contradiction, they are institutions of public interest, so it is difficult to foster a mechanism of participation. I think that in the future it should be thought or rethought that the INE is the only one that can disseminate this revocation of mandate”, he explained.

The expert said that for the exercise of the Mandate Revocation to prevail, it depends a lot on the will of the presidency after the 2024 elections, as well as on the alignment of political forces. “Legitimacy is always a somewhat intangible element that is very important for a government. One wonders what would have happened if this type of exercise had been done in previous years.”

Something he considered worthy of enthusiasm and very important to preserve in Mexican democracy was that all these processes “make them citizens, there were volunteers who gave up their day to do this kind of thing. The INE belongs to citizens and citizens do it, that is a very healthy thing for our political system”.

Regarding the disagreements between the INE and President López Obrador, Partido Lara said that there was tension over “the issue of budgets because they had different calculations of how much it should cost.”

“I think there is also a question that does not come from this government, but from a long time ago about the high salaries of the presiding councillors. I believe that this point is valid. One problem with democracy is that it is very expensive.”

Obviously, he said, there is political tension because Lorenzo Córdova, the president of the INE, will leave office before the end of the six-year term of the Morenista president.

“The appointment of the new presiding director generates political tension, also because AMLO put the idea that they would be elected through a kind of direct mechanism. We are in a complex time of political change,” he concluded.

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