Mexico: Thousands Protest President's Electoral Reform Plan

Facts

• Demonstrators took to the streets of Mexico and other cities across Mexico on Sunday to protest against electoral reforms proposed by Pres. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, including an overhaul of the National Electoral Institute (INE).
• Congress is expected to start discussing these constitutional changes in the coming weeks, with the president's Morena party unable to approve it without opposition support.
• López Obrador's plans to allow the public to directly choose electoral regulators and to federalize election agencies were put forward last spring, following allegations that the INE had become too partisan.
• INE regulators are currently elected by a two-thirds majority in the lower house of Mexico's Congress from candidates shortlisted by a panel of experts. Electoral judges are proposed by the Supreme Court and appointed by the Senate.
• If approved, the bill would also cut public financing for political parties, limit advertising time, and reduce the number of seats in the lower house of Congress from 500 to 300 and in the Senate from 128 to 96.
• While these measures would offer some desirable cost savings, critics stress that they would concentrate power at the federal level and threaten INE's independence by turning it into a political institution.

Sources: Washington Post, PBS NewsHour, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, DW, and Politico.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by The Yucatan Times. It's clear that López Obrador wants to undermine Mexican institutions to perpetuate himself in power. However, the nation has delivered a strong response with these protests, showing that he won't be allowed to dismantle what has been achieved through decades of struggle.
• Narrative B, as provided by Mexico Daily Post. This electoral reform won't eliminate the INE, but the corruption and lack of transparency that have long marred the institution and Mexico's electoral system. As the country's electoral bodies have failed to comply with their democratic duties, it's time to revamp them in order to establish truely democratic institutions.