Signatures, only the first obstacle
But in the remote event that Morena achieves its goal of submitting almost 2 million signatures, there will be other obstacles that the consultation must overcome, including the endorsement of the Supreme Court that will assess whether the question and the matter of the consultation are constitutional and the mere discussion about the crimes that former presidents could face.
In accordance with the Law on Popular Consultation, the Supreme Court must decide on the constitutionality of the matter of the popular consultation and check that the question is not biased or contains value judgments; use neutral, simple and understandable language and produce a categorical answer in a positive or negative sense.
For this, even the Court can modify the question if it considers it appropriate and notify the Chamber of origin of its resolution. If the Court declares the matter of the consultation unconstitutional, the matter will be closed as totally and definitively concluded.
But in his analysis, President López Obrador has also made it clear that there are even inconsistencies and there will be controversy between the law and the Constitution: on the one hand, the law establishes that a popular consultation can be held on the first Sunday in August of each year, while the Article 35 of the Magna Carta states that they must take place on the same day as the federal election day.
Only one former president: Manuel González was subject to criminal proceedings for corruption, in his capacity as Grand Jury, Congress decided not to try him because it was a corruption trial. Today, the Chamber of Deputies eliminated the presidential procedural immunity, which is pending in the Senate and that only allows a former president to be tried for treason and there is even discussion about whether the trial can be done once his mandate ends or in functions.
The President of the Republic must send the request for popular consultation to the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate, which must turn it over directly to the Supreme Court, together with the proposed question, so that it may decide on its constitutionality within a period of twenty days. natural.
If the Court declares the matter of the consultation constitutional, the endorsed question cannot be modified and the resolution will still have to be turned over to the Governance Commission, for its analysis and opinion, which must be approved by the majority of each Chamber of Congress and if that does not happen, it will also be archived and will be definitively concluded.
If at least 33 percent of the members of the Senate or the Chamber of Deputies elaborate the petition for popular consultation, the President of the Board of Directors will turn it over to the Governance Commission for its analysis and opinion, which must be approved by the majority. of each House of Congress and if that does not happen, it will be concluded.
On the contrary, if the petition is approved, the reviewing Chamber, that is, the one that did not originate the petition, will send it to the Court to follow the same process.
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