AMLO Wins Mexico’s First Ever Recall Election
A historic recall election took place in Mexico over the weekend, giving voters their first ever opportunity to remove an elected president from power. The outcome was a resounding victory for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who now has a renewed mandate for change.
Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador speaks during his daily morning press conference in Mexico City on April 11, 2022. (Claudio Cruz / AFP via Getty Images)
The outcome was never in doubt: Andrés Manuel López Obrador was going to win Mexico’s historic recall election on Sunday, April 10. And he did, with 91.86 percent of the vote — or 15.1 million out of 16.5 million votes cast. The election is important on two counts. In addition to ensuring that AMLO will remain in office until the conclusion of his term in September of 2024, the election also establishes an important precedent that Mexican presidents and governors, once considered untouchable, can be subject to removal from office before their terms are over.
Telling the Sun to Continue to Shine
This first-ever recall in Mexico’s history was a long time in the making. As an opposition mayor of Mexico City, AMLO himself inaugurated the precedent of convening a recall halfway through his period in 2004, winning handily. From there, he included the promise to submit himself to a recall in the platforms of his three presidential campaigns. Once he finally assumed the presidency following his victory in the 2018 election, his administration, together with his MORENA allies in Congress and state legislatures, amended the constitution to include the possibility of both recalls and binding referenda.
But from there to putting the new provisions into practice, there was still a long way to go. When AMLO proposed that his recall election take place — logically — on the same day as last year’s midterm elections, the opposition refused, fearing that having the two on the same day would increase turnout to its detriment.
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