Mexican president pledges not to seek re-election

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged on Friday not to seek a second term after lawmakers passed a bill that critics fear could pave the way for a change in the constitution that would enable re-election. Late Thursday, the lower house of Congress approved legislation permitting referendums to cut short the six-year presidential term, in line with Lopez Obrador's plan to have the public vote on his performance half-way through his term.

The constitutional change, which must still be approved by the Senate, will enable Lopez Obrador to honour his pledge to give the electorate a chance to vote him out after three years. Critics say that will also allow the president to put himself at the centre of the campaign for mid-term legislative elections in 2021, and could encourage support for permitting re-election.

The Mexican constitution limits a president to a single six-year term. Lopez Obrador told reporters at his regular morning news conference he would sign a commitment on Monday, pledging his opposition to re-election, reiterating previous promises.

"I am not someone with vulgar ambitions," Lopez Obrador said, speaking on the Ides of March. "I will serve the people for six years, and at the end of 2024 I will conclude my mandate." The Ides of March was the day that Julius Caesar was assassinated by members of the Roman Senate in 44 BC.

Lopez Obrador, whose approval ratings have been around 80 per cent in some recent polls, took office in December after winning a landslide victory in July 2018. Presidential re-election has been taboo since the consolidation nearly a century ago of the Mexican Revolution, a devastating civil conflict that erupted from popular discontent with the three-decade dictatorship of strongman Porfirio Diaz.