Enrique Peña Nieto Approval Rating 2015: Referendum Would Force Mexican President From Office

Embattled Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto should step down, according to a group of politicians, activists and actors who launched a referendum campaign Monday to force him from office. The referendum from the group known as the "Citizens for Revocation of the Mandate" could be put before voters during Mexico's legislative and regional elections in June, reported teleSUR.

Activists said Peña Nieto's administration, approaching halfway through his six-year term, has been a failure amid widening problems of poverty, corruption, insecurity and impunity. “We intend to show clearly and decisively our rejection of Enrique Peña Nieto's government, which is why we will demand the ballots to be counted in order to show the magnitude of popular repudiation against his government,” declared the organizers.

Supporters of the referendum include actor Daniel Giménez Cacho, lawmakers Javier Corral, Manuel Bartlett and Layda Sansores and former deputy Gerardo Fernandez Noronha, according to El Siglo. The petition (loosely translated) reads: "The moral fracture, the political weakness, the constitutional impairment and level of incompetence shown are sufficient reasons to demand from Enrique Peña Nieto that it is time to separate from the office of president of the republic."

Peña Nieto took office in December 2012 from President Felipe Calderon, who ruled Mexico between 2006 and 2012 and declared a war against the drug cartels that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Many Mexicans say the country's pervasive corruption has gotten even worse since Peña Nieto took office, with political parties getting the burnt of the blame, according to a recent poll. Senior public officials, the judiciary and state and federal governments were also deemed corrupt.

Peña Nieto's administration has been plagued with one of the worst scandals in recent history in Mexico after 21 people were apparently executed by soldiers and 43 students disappeared last year.

Peña Nieto's approval rating sank to an all-time low in December, with more than half of all Mexicans saying they disapproved of his administration, and 85 percent saying they do not trust him. No Mexican president since the revolution a century ago has been removed by democratic means in the middle of his term.