Daily Times

Mexican presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday that if he wins the July 1 election, he will aim to hold a public vote before taking office on whether to finish building a $13 billion airport outside Mexico City.

The airport, spearheaded by President Enrique Pena Nieto and set to be half-completed by year’s end, has come under fire by Lopez Obrador for being too expensive and allegedly generating corruption.

Lopez Obrador, who leads by wide margins in all major opinion polls, has proposed “public consultations” for various issues including changes to a sweeping energy reform and even his performance as president, but has given few details of how they would work.

He said that if elected, he would seek a meeting with Pena Nieto on July 3 to discuss the airport, but did not say how he would hold a public consultation as president-elect.

It would appear he would require the outgoing president’s approval for such an initiative.

Pena Nieto’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Pena Nieto previously said he would not halt airport construction while his administration completes its term.

Lopez Obrador said the vote on the Norman Foster-designed airport, Mexico’s biggest infrastructure project, would be conducted by the National Electoral Institute (INE), which runs elections, or a citizen committee.

“It could be the INE or a committee of independent citizens of unobjectionable honesty,” he told reporters after a campaign event in the city of Texcoco in Mexico State, where the airport is being built. “We can resolve this, at the latest, in two months. … Perhaps in the first two weeks of September … it can’t wait any longer,” he said.

Published in Daily Times, June 19^th 2018.