At least 2.7 million citizens must present their signatures to request the holding of the consultation to revoke the mandate of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, according to a draft guidelines prepared by the National Electoral Institute (INE).
The figure corresponds to 3% of the Nominal List of Electors, which could become higher, since the INE plans to establish the cut of the List on October 15.
Citizen signatures in support of the recall referendum must be collected in at least 17 states of the country and represent at least 3% of the Nominal List in each of them.
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For the collection of signatures of support, the electoral umpire will make available the same app that enabled in past years, such as in the registration of independent candidates and the formation of new political parties.
The application, for smartphones with Android operating system, is called “Citizen Support-INE” and will be available for download on the Play Store. The period for the collection of signatures in support of the revocation consultation will be from November 1 to December 15 of this year.
The procedure is the same as in the past: a valid supporting signature consists of capturing images of both sides of a voting card, as well as a live photo of the applicant’s face and autograph signature.
Signatures of support may be collected by citizens or by civil organisations, never by parties. However, this time, each individual citizen will also be able to download the app and make their registration on their own, without having to go with an assistant.
The INE will now take precautions to avoid systematic irregularities committed in past years with the app. For example, according to the guidelines, the use of maquila centers of signatures will be prohibited, that is, geographical points where massive support is collected, an irregularity detected to Margarita Zavala in her 2018 campaign for the independent presidential candidacy.
The use of public resources in the collection of signatures will also be prohibited, as happened in the case of Jaime Rodríguez, governor of Nuevo León, who, to gather signatures in support of his independent candidacy in the presidential election 3 years ago, used as auxiliaries employees of his government.
The INE warns that signatures that have recorded images of photocopies of the voter’s credential or a different document will be classified as invalid; that lack the citizen’s photo or that portray different people, as well as objects.
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At this point, the electoral umpire will adopt inclusion criteria in favor of transgender people whose photograph does not correspond to the image of their voter id.
Once the INE validates the signatures and determines that they meet the criteria of national representativeness, it will issue the call for the revocation consultation on January 26, 2022. The exercise will take place 60 days later, that is, on Sunday, March 27.
Parties will have box representatives
As in an ordinary election, the political parties will have polling representatives to monitor the development of the referendum on the revocation of mandate, according to the draft guidelines for the organization of the exercise.
Party representatives will also participate in monitoring the counting of votes after polling stations are closed, the counting record is filled out and district counts are counted.
The INE will dedicate official time on radio and TV for the dissemination of the consultation, and the parties themselves may cede the use of their prerogatives in the media to promote the exercise. It will be forbidden for these, or third parties, to hire time on radio and television to influence the opinion of the public.
The guidelines state that parties and political actors will be able to spread propaganda about the consultation, but without using public resources. The money invested in such propaganda must be notified to the electoral umpire for inspection.
The bill also establishes a ban between the issuance of the call and the day of the revocation consultation, a period in which government propaganda may not be disseminated, except for health or education campaigns.
The General Council of the INE will release a quick count of the vote on the night of the day.
In order for the results of the referendum to revoke the mandate to be binding, a citizen participation of 40% of the Nominal Voters List, equivalent to, must be accredited. to 37.4 million people.
In the event that the Electoral Tribunal declares the revocation of the mandate appropriate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador would have to leave the presidency immediately; in this case, the Congress of the Union must appoint a substitute president to conclude the six-year term.
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