Mexico to hold first presidential recall election in nation’s history

CD. JUAREZ, Chihuahua - This weekend, a recall election will be held to decide Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's fate. This type of recall election is not common. This will be the first time an election like this will take place in Mexico.

Usually, Mexican presidents remain in power for six years; in this case, Lopez Obrador has been in power for over three years. This is the main reason people are skeptical about voting; they think this is a weird moment to hold a recall election.

The recall election was proposed by Lopez Obrador himself right after he entered power back in 2018. In 2019, the election was approved. That's why Mexican citizens will have the opportunity to write-in the ballots this weekend.

ABC-7 spoke with the Director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute, Tony Payan, who says this election seems odd.

“Usually is a mechanism that is designed to allow the opposition to call or recall the president. In this particular case in Mexico, what is really strange is that it is not the opposition that is organizing the recall election; it is the government itself,” Payan said.

This weekend's election will cost around $85 million. There are concerns the Mexican government has been organizing, funding and campaigning for this recall election.

For the recall election to be valid, 40 percent of eligible voters have to vote. That's about 37 million voters. However, Lopez Obrador already said he would step down if he loses, no matter how many people decide to vote on Sunday.

He says he can't govern without people's support.

When the Mexican President won back in 2018, voter turnout was more than 62 percent. Lopez Obrador had an approval rate of around 60 percent.

This Sunday's election will decide if he will continue his mandate until 2024 or if he will leave his seat way ahead it was supposed to.

“Everything is going so bad right now that I think most Mexicans are very busy doing what they need to do on a day-to-day basis to bother going to the polls,” Payan said.

Payan also mentioned how hard it would be to have a high voter turnout because of the country's situation.