Few Mexicans vote on whether president stays or goes

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Fewer than two of every 10 eligible Mexican voters have cast ballots on whether their popular president should end his six-year term barely midway through or continue to the end. The National Electoral Institute’s initial statistical estimate late Sunday showed, as expected, an overwhelming tendency toward having President Andrés Manuel López Obrador finish out his term, with nearly all ballots backing the leader. But participation in the referendum was estimated at only 17% to 18% of eligible voters, less than half the participation required to be binding. It was López Obrador who pushed for the first-ever referendum of its kind in Mexico. Critics decried the exercise as a waste of money — almost $80 million.