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It advances unevenly among the federal entities, with regulations that vary widely and with legal loopholes
Writing
Of the 32 federal entities of the country, only 16 contemplate the figure of Revocation of Mandate for their governors. In the remaining half, this citizen participation tool does not exist or lacks the necessary regulations to be applied. In 13 states, the requirement to request it is to gather signatures equivalent to 10% of the Nominal Listand for its result to be binding, at least 40% of citizens with a valid credential must participate.
Some entities have particular rules, such as Jalisco, Morelos and Aguascalientes. In Veracruz the debate could be reactivated towards 2027, in the absence of clear guidelines to implement the figure.
In Jalisco, the state Constitution establishes a much lower threshold: 3% of signatures on the Nominal List are enough to promote the revocation. With a registry of 6 million 741 thousand 969 voters, 202 thousand 259 signatures would be required to activate this mechanism against the Emecista governor Pablo Lemus. The request can only be made within the first 120 days of the second half of the mandate, that is, between December 7, 2027 and April 4, 2028. For the result to be mandatory, at least the same number of citizens who voted in the 2024 election would have to participate: 3 million 762 thousand 56.
Other states have legal loopholes. In Coahuila, the revocation does not appear in the local Constitution; It is only mentioned in a general way in the Charter of Political Rights, without regulations that allow it to be exercised. In Colima, although the Constitution recognizes the right to participate in “renewal of mandate,” the Citizen Participation Law does not include the revocation process, which in fact makes it inapplicable.
Baja California does explicitly recognize the figure in its Constitution, along with other mechanisms such as popular consultationreferendum and citizen initiative. In contrast, Tamaulipas does not contemplate revocation, but does contemplate a peculiar figure: the mandatory “tours” of mayors, trustees and councilors to supervise public services and municipal conditions, according to article 70 of its Citizen Participation Law.
Half of the states in the country remain in contempt of the Sixth Transitory of the constitutional reform published on December 20, 2019, which ordered entities to guarantee the right to request the revocation of the mandate of the heads of the local Executive Branch. The mandate established a period of 18 months to harmonize the state constitutions and established minimum requirements: submit the request within three months after the third year of government and gather signatures equivalent to at least 10% of the Nominal List, distributed in half plus one of the municipalities or mayors’ offices.