Mexico’s Senate appeals to AMLO’s plan B and approves electoral reform

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The Mexican Senate approved, this Thursday (15), a bill presented by the government that reduces the budget and structure of the INE (National Electoral Institute), the body responsible for organizing the polls and ensuring their fairness. According to opponents, the approved legislation threatens the entity’s independence.

Last week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador suffered a defeat in the Chamber of Deputies when trying to pass a similar bill. On the occasion, he responded to the defeat by sending a similar proposal to Congress, but considered more flexible and with simpler procedures.

It is precisely this new text approved by the Senate, this Thursday, by 68 votes in favor and 50 against. The project had already been accepted by the Chamber, but, as the senators changed some parts of the proposal, it returns for analysis by the deputies – with a government majority.

The new bill has as its main objective the reorganization of INE’s administrative attributions, as well as the extinction of positions that, according to the government, would allow a reduction of US$ 150 million (R$ 825 million) in public expenses per year .

On Wednesday (14), INE members warned that the changes under discussion present “deficiencies that put the functioning of electoral processes at risk”. “INE was never consulted on the content of the said reform. The Institute was not asked for information, diagnoses or a technical opinion on the proposed changes”, they added.

The electoral authorities also warned that they will resort to all legal instances to “continue to guarantee free and authentic elections”. This means, for example, that if the final word of the Chamber on the legislation is positive, the body and the opposition of AMLO, as Obrador is known, will take the case to the Supreme Court of Justice – the highest instance of the Mexican Judiciary.

AMLO applauded the approval of the reform this Thursday, but regretted the fact that the text is not a constitutional amendment, as previously proposed. “The electoral system will be improved, not as we would have liked, because the conservative bloc was opposed to constitutional reform,” he told reporters. “Since the Constitution cannot be reformed, this is a limited reform,” he added.

The proposal previously rejected by the Chamber sought that electoral counselors and ministers be elected by direct vote and not by the Legislature. The changes suggested by the text, however, went beyond the structure of INE and included, for example, the reduction of seats in Congress – the number of deputies would go from 500 to 300 and that of senators from 128 to 96. The change in political composition , incidentally, was one of the points criticized by congressmen.

In recent months, AMLO has been accusing his country’s electoral authority of corruption and lack of transparency. The representative also encourages his supporters to criticize INE. At the heart of this movement is a shift to authoritarianism with the right to controversial measures, such as the increase in the functions that can be performed by the Armed Forces, the lack of action to contain a growing number of murdered journalists and now the initiative to reform the electoral body.

In his fourth year in office —there are six, without the right to re-election—, the left-wing populist still has a high popularity index compared to other leaders in the region (67%, according to the Poligrama institute), but he sees growing resistance sectors under its management. Faced with the insistence of promoting electoral reform, opposition wings, previously fragmented, came together in an attempt to stop the measure.

Indicated as a threat to democracy, the proposal mobilized thousands of people who took to the streets in repudiation of the text. Organizations such as the NGO Human Rights Watch have echoed the criticism, saying the initiative jeopardizes the continuation of “free and fair” elections in Mexico.

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