By Dell Dumont

Graphics

On Feb. 22, more than 100,000 people gathered in the streets of Mexican cities including Guadalajara, Morelia, and Mexico City to protest the nation’s government passing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s electoral reform law. The changes to the law limit the powers and cut the staff of the country’s election administrator, the National Electoral Institute. 

Protestors urged the Mexican government to protect the people’s interests and overturn the president’s changes like it had done in the past with other presidential initiatives. They chanted, “Don’t touch my vote!” and “trust in the court,” wearing pink and white, the colors of the National Electoral Institute. Critics claim that the law would weaken a key patron of Mexican democracy and make it difficult to guarantee free and fair elections.  Lorenzo Cordova, the head of the National Electoral Institute, has said the reforms “seek to cut thousands of people who work every day to guarantee trustworthy elections, something that will of course pose a risk for future elections.” 

Obrador denies the reforms are a threat to democracy and called critics elitist. The President argued that the law would increase voter efficiency and save millions of dollars; funds that could be reallocated toward the poor. The president has appeared nonchalant about court challenges saying the changes would be upheld because they were not “outside the law.”

When enacted, the law would cut salaries, funding for local election offices, and training for citizens who operate and oversee polling stations. It would also reduce sanctions for candidates who fail to report campaign spending. Many demonstrators are wary of miscounting, campaign overspending, and electoral pressure tactics that were prevalent in the 1990s, before the independent electoral agency was created. As late as the 2000 elections, the old PRI, a Mexican political party established in 1929, maneuvered around legislation to retain Mexico’s presidency for 70 years. 

Obrador cannot run for reelection, but remains highly popular with a 60 percent approval rate. The president’s party, the Morena party, is favored in the 2024 elections. Part of his appeal comes from his fight against high-paid bureaucrats within the Mexican government and how he has pioneered against top electoral officials who receive higher pay than the president. 

(Sources: AllSides, NPR, NY Times)