Politics

López Obrador’s survives recall referendum marked by low voter turnout

Mexico City, Apr 10 (EFE).- About 90 percent of Mexicans voting in a recall referendum on Sunday backed Andrés Manuel López Obrador to continue as the country’s president.

Between 90.3 and 91.9 percent of the votes were in favor of López Obrador continuing in office for the remaining three years of his term, while between 6.4 and 7.8 percent voted to recall him, counselor president of the National Electoral Institute (INE), Lorenzo Córdova, said.

However, the voter turnout of between 17 and 18.2 percent was far below the 40 percent necessary for the referendum to be binding, according to the preliminary results of the INE.

The low turnout is a political setback for López Obrador and an endorsement of opposition parties that had rejected the referendum and called for non-participation.

However, Mario Delgado, the national leader of López Obrador’s party, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), said at a press conference that the president had received a better-than-expected result.

Delgado said that the preliminary result of the referendum was a success for the president and the party and that the voter turnout had been good considering it is usually less than 50 percent in general elections.

“Between 15 and 17 million people voted in favor of the president,” he said, which is about half the votes he obtained in the 2018 presidential election.

The results released by the INE are based on a quick count from a sample of some 1,800 boxes to offer an estimate of the participation in and outcome of the process.

More than 92.82 million Mexicans over the age of 18 were called to vote on Sunday. Around 37 million were required to cast their ballots to make the referendum binding.

The question that appeared on the ballots was: “Do you agree that the mandate of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of the United Mexican States, should be revoked due to a loss of confidence, or should he remain in the Presidency of the Republic until his term ends?”

The two choices of responses were: “His mandate should be revoked due to the loss of confidence” and “He should remain in the Presidency of the Republic.” EFE

ia/pd

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