The low participation marked the citizen consultation this Sunday in Mexico that Andrés Manuel López Obrador had promoted with the intention of “investigating and judging” the five previous presidents.
The quick count of the National Electoral Institute (INE) estimated that only between 7, 07 and 7, 74% of Mexicans summoned turned out to cast their vote, very far from the 40% necessary for the result to be binding.
As was also expected, the “yes” was the majority option among those who voted (among the 89, 4 and the 96, 3% of the votes) and well above “no” (between 1.4 and 1.6%).
The query was considered unpublished because it was the first held at the federal level following the channels established by the Constitution since this figure was included in it and was regulated by a federal law of 2014.
However, since its call it received strong criticism by those who considered that this issue should not be submitted to popular consultation, that the question asked was very ambiguous and that it was not known what the real consequences of the result would be.
Low influx of people
Throughout the day, the predominant image in many of the voting points was the small number of people who came to cast their vote, far from the long lines seen in the midterm elections last June.
President AMLO’s initial proposal was to ask the population if their case should be investigated and judged to his five predecessors for alleged crimes committed during his tenure s: Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Ernesto Zedillo, Vicente Fox, Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto.
However, the Supreme Court ordered to modify the statement to preserve the presumption of innocence of the aforementioned, given that the Constitution does not allow consultations if they violate the human rights of citizens.
So that, The ballot in which the Mexicans responded this Sunday contained as a question whether or not they agreed on “undertake a process of clarification of the political decisions taken in past years by the political actors, aimed at guaranteeing justice and the rights of possible victims. ”
Part of the Mexican population saw this initiative as an opportunity to ac embrace impunity and guarantee justice to the victims of historical cases of human rights violations in the country.
However, many others criticized the fact that this issue had to be submitted to a popular vote and the law not applied directly, so they advanced that they would not participate by not considering the pertinent question.
In addition, many considered the question finally posed “ambiguous”, as well as the lack of clarity regarding what the real effects and consequences would be after the holding of the consultation.
“I did not agree very much with the consultation,” he acknowledged at the exit of an electoral college Julia Ferreira, a young woman who came to vote in Mexico City.
“But s í I strongly agree that past governments are held accountable, specifically Ayotzinapa (the disappearance of 43 students), the decisions in the framework of the war against narco … BBC Mundo.
What will happen now?
It remains to be seen what AMLO’s reading of these will be results. Despite having actively promoted the consultation, the president did not participate and, paradoxically, said that he would vote for “no” if he had done so because he claims not to seek “revenge” against the former presidents.
But in anticipation that the initiative would achieve little participation, AMLO already blamed this Saturday for the possible failure on the little diffusion and publicity about the consultation since “there are not enough boxes” to vote.
Despite having promoted the consultation and having called for citizen participation to make their opinion known, AMLO did not vote this Sunday. The INE, in charge of The organization failed to get Congress to increase its budget so it spent US $ 19, 5 million and installed a third of the polls elected rales that took place in the last elections.
It is very likely that the confrontation between the president and the electoral body will increase as a result of the result. Be that as it may, not having reached the 40% participation required makes the consultation non-binding.
But the president of Morena (AMLO’s party), Mario Moreno, preferred to emphasize victory of “yes” and insisted that they will propose the creation of a truth commission and of “a commission against impunity for the economic crimes of neoliberalism.”
“A great day for our democracy, the yes won (…). The people’s clamor for justice greatly exceeded the no, “he wrote on Twitter without making any reference to the low participation.
The opposition, however, was quick to criticize the result harshly. “The failure of the popular consultation showed once again that Mexicans are fed up with a government that hides in the past so as not to face the present,” the PRI president tweeted , Alejandro Moreno .
Who also spoke with irony after knowing the results was the former president Vicente Fox , one of those indicated in the first formulation of the question of this query.
“Historical day. Lowest vote of all time !! ”, he tweeted.
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