Mexico’s Obrador wins recall referendum

It is a new thing in democratic politics. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who is serving a six-year presidential term, and which does not allow for a second term for the incumbent, had held a “recall referendum” asking the question whether he had lost the trust of the people. And he had won overwhelmingly with 90 per cent voting in his favour.

There were 15 million votes were for Obrador and one million against him. Of course, the figures hide the fact that only 18 per cent of the eligible electorate cast their vote in favour of Obrador, the populist president who has a huge support because of his welfare schemes. Sixty-year-old Guillermina Gomez, from the central province of Tlaxcala, said, “Thanks to him we’ve received benefits that no one else has given us.” She said Obrador’s welfare schemes enabled her grandchildren to enrol in school. On the other hand, Maribel Rosa, 36, who had voted for Obrador in 2018, voted for his removal in this recall referendum, introduced into the constitution in 2019. A triumphant Obrador declared in a video message, “We don’t have a king in Mexico. It’s a democracy, and the people are in charge.” Opposition leaders criticised the referendum exercise which cost millions of dollars as a waste of resources, done just to satisfy the ego of Obrador.

Not many democracies in the world have this provision of recall except in Switzerland and in states like California in the United States. Recall and referendum is the dream of idealistic democrats who champion the cause when they speak of electoral reforms in democratic countries. But there are practical difficulties. The processes are cumbersome, and they disturb governance more than anything else. Pragmatists argue that when a person is elected for a term, whether it be two years as in the case of House of Representatives in the United States, and the office of governor in the states in the United States, a four-year term for the president of the United States and a six-year term in the United States Senate, it gives enough breathing time and space both for the voter and the elected representative.

There is no doubt however that initiatives like the recall referendum in Mexico do give an air of people controlling the elected representatives. Many political scientists have pointed out that these ultra-democratic measures work best in small polities like Switzerland or in ancient Greek cities like Athens, but they are not suitable for larger polities with hundreds of millions of voters as in the United States and in India.

In the Mexican context, it becomes evident that Obrador is using the referendum to gauge the support he enjoys four years into his term, with two more years left. The Mexican constitution does not allow a second term for a president, and Obrador said that he was not looking for a second term. Political observers in Mexico say that Obrador is keen to promote the cause of his party and he would want someone from his party to be the next president.

Alejandro Moreno of the PRI, the party that ruled Mexico till 2000, said the referendum was a mockery of democracy and that it was used to satisfy the ego of the president. Marko Cortes of the conservative opposition party, PAN, said the referendum was marked “by illegality, lies, manipulation, and the diversion of public resources.” However, Mario Delgado, leader of the ruling Morena party, defended the referendum saying “Only an indomitable, unwavering democrat like him (Obrador) can subject himself to a recall process.”

Obrador chose the recall referendum when he was not threatened, and it seems to be an exercise to assure himself that he can carry on with his agenda, which is partly reformist, partly populist.