TEHRAN, October 29 - Mexicans voted to scrap a part-built $13 billion new airport for the capital in a divisive referendum pushed for by President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, dealing a blow to business leaders like Carlos Slim, and causing the peso to slide.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Roughly a million people, just 1 percent of Mexico's electorate, participated in the referendum held over four days, the Arturo Rosenblueth Foundation, the non-profit organization that supervised the count, said after voting ended on Sunday.
Almost 70 percent voted against the new airport, it said.
Called a "public consultation", the vote was non-binding, but the leftist Lopez Obrador, who had called for the referendum and was against the new airport, has pledged to respect the result.
The peso weakened some 2 percent against the dollar after the results were announced, making it by far the biggest loser among major currencies against the dollar.
The public was asked if the next government should finish the new airport to replace the current hub, or add two runways to convert a military air base in Santa Lucia, around 50 km (31 miles) north of the capital, and keep the current airport.
Lopez Obrador, who takes office on Dec. 1, argued during the election campaign that the new airport was tainted by corruption and would be expensive to maintain due to the geological complexity of the terrain. It has been under construction on the drained bed of Lake Texcoco east of Mexico City since 2015.
Source: Reuters
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