The changes that AMLO wants to the electoral law 3:27
(CNN Spanish) --
Mexico's electoral reform proposed in April by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador seeks to lower the costs of the Mexican political system, but the initiative has several controversial points that led hundreds of thousands of people to march in the City of Mexico and in more than thirty cities in the country to oppose the proposal that, according to the opposition, is a strategy to eliminate the National Electoral Institute (INE), the country's autonomous electoral body.
The proposal, which is expected to be voted in the Chamber of Deputies before the end of the year, seeks an estimated saving of some US$ 1,200 million (24,000 million Mexican pesos) by proposing adjustments in the electoral and legislative bureaucracy, as well as a decrease in the budget of political parties.
After the national demonstration, called by some 50 civil organizations, political parties and opposition legislators, the leaders of the PAN, PRD and PRI parties said they will vote against the project.
For his part, López Obrador said that the protest was "racist" and "classist" and announced that he and his Morena party, which has a majority in Congress, have a "plan B" in case their constitutional reform initiative electoral does not pass in Congress.
Opposition march in Mexico against President López Obrador's electoral reform initiative
This plan, according to the president, proposes modifications to the secondary laws and not the 18 articles of the Constitution as originally proposed, which does not require two-thirds of the votes to be approved (only a simple majority) and which involves negotiating with all the political forces to get the votes of legislators.
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Less than two years before the 2024 presidential election, López Obrador has argued that this initiative responds to citizens' demand for an austerity policy and to create electoral bodies that guarantee legitimate elections, without the possibility of fraud.
The electoral reform proposal, sent to Congress by the president in April, proposes modifications to 18 constitutional articles and seven transitory articles, among which the disappearance of the National Electoral Institute (INE), the body in charge of organizing elections in Mexico, and replace it with the so-called National Institute of Elections and Consultations (INEC).
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The new electoral body would have seven directors instead of the 11 that the INE currently has.
In addition, it proposes that they be elected by popular vote, like the magistrates that make up the Electoral Tribunal of the Judiciary.
With the creation of the INEC, the state electoral institutes would also disappear and the new body would be in charge of organizing federal, state and municipal elections.
The adjustments to the electoral bodies are due, according to the initiative, to the fact that both the INE and the Electoral Tribunal "were integrated by partisan quotas and co-opted by power groups, to the detriment of their impartiality in favor of democracy."
Opposition parties discuss controversial points
The disappearance of the INE and the reduction of the electoral bureaucracy that requires constitutional changes are some of the points that have caused the most controversy and disagreement among the political parties and groups opposed to the president.
Last October, a working group made up of deputies representing all political parties was set up to analyze more than 100 initiatives on electoral reform, including that of the president.
The opposition bloc Va por México — made up of the National Action (PAN), Institutional Revolutionary (PRI) and Democratic Revolution (PRD) parties — agreed to review the initiatives, although they said they did not agree with some of the proposals.
The PRD coordinator in the Chamber of Deputies, Luis Ángel Espinoza Cházaro, said that Mexico's institutional framework is solid.
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"It requires improvements in secondary laws, but from our point of view it is not necessary now, in the face of an election for the presidency in 2024, to modify the constitutional framework," said the PRD member.
Rubén Moreira, a PRI representative, added that this party does not anticipate his vote in favor of any reform.
"We are not going to allow the INE or the Federal Electoral Tribunal to be damaged, and this is understood in their autonomy, in their certainty, in their transparency and in all the conditions that make their work possible," Moreira said.
The Citizen Movement party then showed its total rejection of this initiative.
His representative at the work table, Salvador Caro, left the meeting after stating that “what they are doing is giving the president the conditions to put his puppet up.
Movimiento Ciudadano wants to inform in front of all of you and in front of the Mexicans that it will not participate in this farce”.
The reduction of legislators and the financing of the parties
The Mexican president also proposes to reduce the number of legislators. In the case of the Senate, the decrease would be from 128 senators to 96. In the case of the Chamber of Deputies, the figure is proposed to go from 500 to 300.
At the same time, the figure of legislators elected by proportional or multi-member representation disappeared, that is, positions that are distributed based on the percentage of votes obtained by each political party, leaving only those who campaigned and were elected by the citizens in the polls.
An adjustment is also proposed for local congresses.
The initiative proposes that there be a minimum of 15 deputies and a maximum of 45.
In the town halls there would be a limit of up to nine aldermen in proportion to the population of each municipality.
According to López Obrador, the population demands austere elections and political parties, which is why his initiative contemplates limiting the financing of political institutes "only for electoral campaign expenses" and suppressing the more than US$550 million (11,000 million pesos) of the so-called ordinary financing that is delivered to them each year, as established in the initiative.
The document adds that the elimination of the budget in non-electoral years would represent a saving of more than 66% of current spending.
Financing for ordinary activities of political parties reached more than US$ 277 million (5.500 million pesos) last year.
Morena, the party founded by the president, received more than US$85 million (1,700 million pesos), while the PAN and PRI received just over US$50 million (1,000 million pesos) each.
The president also proposed raising to constitutional rank the guarantee of the use of information and communication technologies for the casting of the vote.
Legislators react to AMLO's electoral reform 2:52
AMLO Electoral Reform