Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Photo: Google

By KELIN DILLON

In the midst of the ongoing controversy surrounding Mexico’s autonomous National Electoral Institute (INE) holding mandate revocation of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), the Mexican executive took to his daily morning press conference on Wednesday, March 16, to accuse the INE of hiding the locations of the process’ ballot boxes, requesting for organization officials to “define” their location.

“I respectfully asked the INE advisers to meet and define where the voting booths are going to be, because they are hiding them; that it be made known where the polls are going to be and that there are enough ballots, so that they don’t run out,” said AMLO at the time.

This is not the first time that López Obrador has taken to his press conferences to publicly admonish his self-decided enemies, as AMLO’s previous rants have targeted the likes of the entirety of the Mexican press, anti-corruption organizations, and the country of Spain, just to name a few

Now, AMLO has directed his attention once more to the INE – an organization he has proposed to eliminate and absorb into his government instead – accusing the electoral institute of acting as an “accomplice” for not reporting on the consultation.

“They are not going to brush me off for what I am saying, because I am forced to say it, because I offered to comply with the Constitution through the mandate revocation and now intend to enforce it,” said López Obrador. “So, how am I going to be silent if I am seeing that they are acting against democracy?”

He then went on to encourage the public to vote in the April 10 referendum, urging Mexican citizens to “combat fraud and enforce democracy” through the vote.

López Obrador then revealed, despite the results of the referendum not being binding, that he would leave his position as president of Mexico if the people voted as such.

“Here, on my word of honor, because of my convictions, if the people vote for me to resign, I’m leaving,” said AMLO. 

For his part, INE electoral advisor Ciro Murayami took to his Twitter account to reject AMLO’s claims, revealing the INE’s established schedule of promoting ballot boxes.

“No, @INEMexico does not ‘hide’ boxes,” read Murayami’s tweet. “The publication on the website of the location of the boxes for the mandate revocation is scheduled for March 28. That is to say, earlier than in the ordinary elections.”

“There is a ballot waiting for citizens who wish to participate this April 10 in the nearly 57,500 polling stations that will be installed throughout the country,” concluded the INE official.