Mexico’s president-elect puts the capital’s new airport to a vote

AT ELSA RíOS GONZÁLEZ’S hair salon in Atenco, east of Mexico City, the chatter turns to the most controversial issue in town, the construction of an international airport. Mexico’s biggest infrastructure project, known as NAICM, is being built just a few kilometres away. Opinion in Atenco is divided. Some of Ms Ríos’s clients fret about the noise and pollution the airport will bring. Others hope for riches. “No one is well informed enough” to judge its merits, says the hairdresser.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who will become Mexico’s president on December 1st, disagrees. A longtime foe of the project, he has put its fate in the hands of voters through a referendum-like “consulta”, to be held on October 25th-28th, more than a month before he takes office. How this unorthodox plan turns out will reveal much about what promises to be an unorthodox presidency. A veteran populist, Mr López Obrador portrays himself as an instrument of the will of ordinary Mexicans. He will offer them an opportunity to vote him out of office midway through his six-year term. The airport consulta is a preview of the sort of direct democracy that he says will characterise his administration.