On Tuesday, Mexico’s Congress approved a raft of constitutional changes that include permitting the right to a recall vote on the president, overriding opposition concerns it may open the door to allowing re-election of the country’s leader.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
has pressed for the recall provision , arguing it should serve as a democratic check on his record. The president’s term is limited to six years and he has said several times he will not seek to change that. The opposition argued he wanted a presidential recall vote to put himself onto an electoral ticket again midway through his term. To avoid that, the Senate agreed last month that any recall vote must be held after the legislative elections in 2021 .
Concluding the approval process, the lower house of Congress voted by 372-75 to endorse the constitutional changes, which also establish the rules for conducting referendums on issues of public interest.
Did you know AMLO vowed
he will not seek reelection in 2024
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The National Electoral Institute (INE) will direct these referendums . In addition, they added mechanisms such as forbidding third parties from hiring propaganda to influence citizens’ opinions, as well as prohibiting government publicity and established August as the only month to carry them out.
Under the changes, the recall vote would be organized by the INE , provided it had the support of at least 3% of voters on the Mexican electoral register.
The INE will call, organize, spread, and inform of the results of the revocation of mandate , which will only be allowed to take place once and within the first three months following the conclusion of the third year of government.
The process will take place 90 days after the calling and on a date that does not match any election.
To become law , the measures must still be approved by a majority of state legislatures. The president’s ruling party controls a majority of Mexico’s state congresses.
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