Mexico Holds National Referendum to Vote on Whether to Investigate the Country’s Ex-Presidents

Mexico held a national referendum to decide whether to investigate the country's five former presidents over corruption. Al Jazeera reported that current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known as AMLO, promoted the said referendum that experts criticized.

According to New York Post, the voting on the national referendum began on Sunday. However, critics noted that the move of the current president was a "political stunt," and turnout of the voting could be low.

Mexico Holds Referendum Promoted by AMLO

The polls opened at around 8 a.m. on Sunday local time and were due to close at about 6 p.m. The result was expected to come out within two or three days.

Lopez Obrador noted that the public consultation would strengthen participatory democracy, WION reported. AMLO blamed the former presidents, namely Carlos Salinas, Ernesto Zedillo, Vicente Fox, Felipe Calderon, and Enrique Pena Nieto, for aggravating or worsening many of Mexico's miseries from poverty to insecurity.

Lopez Obrador accused them of leading "excessive concentration of wealth, monumental losses to the treasury, privatization of public property and widespread corruption."

Their administrations, which spanned between 1988 and 2018, allegedly presided over "excessive concentration of wealth, monumental losses to the treasury, privatization of public property and widespread corruption."

"You have to have faith in the people, you have to have confidence in the people, and their free choice, not be afraid of people," AMLO underscored.

Initially, Lopez Obrador wanted the referendum to ask the public if they want the ex-presidents to be prosecuted. However, Mexico's Supreme Court ordered a looser formulation to safeguard due process and the presumption of innocence.

Meanwhile, the voters also had different views on the said national referendum. According to Reuters, some of the voters praised the current president's efforts, while some were skeptical about it.

"It's a way of expressing my anger against the presidents who plundered the country, but I doubt they will really be prosecuted," said a voter from Tlaxcala, Mexico.

In a recent survey of the newspaper El Financiero, 77 percent of respondents answered that they will support the proposal to put the ex-presidents under probe. However, only 31 percent of people emphasized that they would vote.

At least 40 percent of registered Mexican voters, equivalent to 37.4 million voters, must participate to be binding. Despite their plans to consult the voters on the probe of the former presidents, the administration of Lopez Obrador did not discussed what that process would entail.

Critics of Mexico's National Referendum

Jose Antonio Crespo, a political analyst from Mexico's Center for Economic Research and Training called the referendum "an exercise in politics and media exposure," but noted that the result of the ballot question is not in doubt.

Crespo said the challenge would be rooted in how many people will go out to vote, contending that the number of voters would determine how many people still support AMLO.

Furthermore, Reuters reported that other analysts said that the referendum is done to distract the people from current problems such as record murders, the coronavirus pandemic, and economic malaise.

Meanwhile, Mexico's ex-President Vicente Fox urged the voters to stay home.

"Let's not indulge in this farce," Fox tweeted.

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Joshua Summers

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