Photo: Periódico UNAL

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) much-touted mandate revocation referendum — which the president has promoted as a means to reconfirm his solid popularity among his faithful followers — may never come to pass.

As of Monday, Dec. 6, just 19 days before the deadline for collecting the necessary signatures to carry out the nonbinding referendum, only 791,428 signatures had been confirmed, representing just 28.69 percent of the minimum goal.

Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE) said Monday that a total of 971,741 signatures had been collected, but that about 18 percent of those signatures had not been verified, either because they were duplicated or because the names were not on the national electoral registry.

In order to the referendum to be held, at least 3 percent of Mexicans who are eligible to vote must sign the petition, and that percentage must be reached in at least 17 of the country’s 32 states.

That translates into a need for 2,758,227 signatures, a figure that seems very unlikely to be obtained given that in 36 days not even 30 percent of the necessary signatures have been collected.