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Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is leading the presidential polls in Mexico, has vowed to hold bi-yearly referendums on his performance if he is elected on July 1. The referendums, he explained, would determine if he completes Mexico’s six-year presidential term.
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After formally registering his candidacy for the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and the Together We’ll Make History Coalition on Friday, Obrador said in a brief speech “every two years there will be a popular consultation to ask if you want me to remain in the presidency or if I should resign.”
The most recent polls reveal Lopez Obrador is favored to be Mexico’s next president with 35 percent of those surveyed saying they would vote for him, giving him a 14 point lead against runner-up Ricardo Anaya, backed by the tradition right-wing party National Action Party (PAN), who is currently immersed in a corruption scandal over allegations of money laundering and the use of ghost companies.
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office is investigating Anaya.
Lopez Obrador, former mayor of Mexico City, has run for the country’s top office twice before but was defeated by Felipe Calderon and then by current president Enrique Peña Nieto. In both cases, he and his followers unsuccessfully alleged electoral fraud.
His political platform is based on the commitment to fight corruption and inequality. He has promised to amend an article in Mexico’s constitution to make it possible to try former presidents for corruption and to cancel the pensions Mexico’s former presidents receive.
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