By Martha Martínez y Claudia Salazar
The pro-government majority in the Chamber of Deputies ignored the demonstrations that defended the National Electoral Institute (INE) in the streets [on November 13, a week ago this past Sunday] and public opinion by presenting, yesterday, a reform proposal that insists on replacing the INE with another body that would be elected by popular vote.
MV Note: The current INE's governing council members are appointed by Congress, with each party having a share of members equal to their propotion of members of Congress. The Institute is then "autonomous", i.e., free of any responsibility to be accountable to any other branch of the federal government. This is in order to prevent any influence on its actions or decisons regarding its operation of the national system of voting.
The initiative is based on the proposal made by the President (Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO) which seeks the centralization of the election preparation, execution, and oversight by proposing to eliminate the state electoral institutes and centralizing the entire process in an electoral agency in Mexico City.
Another key point is to create an institute for elections and consultations [public referendums] (INEC) with its members elected by popular vote and to reduce the electoral council from 11 to 7 members.
MV Note: Critics of the proposal, primarily progressive voices in the press and community, hold that the popular election of the council members will assure that the party receiving the majority of votes will control the council and its decisions. Since the 2018 presidental elections, Morena (the Movement for National Regeneration founded by AMLO in 2014) has held the majority in both chambers (houses) of Congress. Thus, the proposal is seen as self-serving to Morena.
The opposition also rejects AMLO's proposed use of public "consultations" (referendums) to decide major political issues. He has introduced them to the political process without any constitutional amendment to give them a legal foundation. He presents this as being "popular democracy" i.e. democracy of "el pueblo", the common people (his base of those primarily of low income or the abject poor, a majority of Mexico's population). His critics see these referendums as a way to go around the constitional structure of a representative Congress and the opposition political parties that are part of it and which are now joined in an alliance against him.
AMLO's proposal also sets a percentage of only 33% of registered voters needing to be in favor of such referendums to make their results legally binding. That would give major decision-making power to a relatively small number of registered voters [in Mexico, all adults are automatically registered to vote] Although they currently have no legal foundation, he has already held such "consultations", which have had low voter turnout, to decide such issues as the abandonment of the construction of a new Mexico International Airport. The massive demonstration against the proposal, held a week-ago Sunday, was led by these critics.
As this article points out, Morena (led vociferously by the president) has dismissed the significance of the level of popular opposition to the proposal. However, the actions of the opposition have affected AMLO's strategy to change the council via a constitutional amendment, which requires a two-thirds majority vote. Morena lost this level of representation in the Chamber of Deputies in the mid-term 2021 elections, and a coalition of opposition parties is opposing the reform. Their number of deputies is sufficient to prevent the legislation from gaining a two-thirds majority.
So, AMLO is now proposing that if his original proposal of a constitutional amendement does not obtain the two-thirds majority of votes required, he will propose legislation that will only change specifics in the "secondary" legislation that was passed to implement the original constitutional amendment establishing the INE. Such changes only require a simple majority, which Morena continues to hold in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
Furthermore, according to the new proposal, the members of Congress will be cut from 500 to 300 deputies and from 128 to 96 senators. Also, deputies and senators will be elected by multi-member lists created by each competing political party in each state, thus eliminating direct election of--and direct representation by--individual members.
Without taking into account proposals from other parties, Morena and his allies presented the draft opinion with the full texts of the Presidential initiative. The project was presented during a meeting of the United Committees for Electoral-Political Reform, Constitutional Issues, and Governance amid protests from the opposition.
Alejandro Moreno, president of the Governance Committee and whose party, Morena, could provide a simple majority for the legislation, reiterated that his party will not support any reform that harms the INE, the Electoral Tribunal (special courts that only hear complaints of violations of the electoral laws, or any institution that is part of the country's electoral system.
Moreno, who is also president of the PRI [Party of the Institutional Revolution, which held hegemonic power in Mexico from the 1930s to the 1990s] stated that the cost for his party for not supporting the President's reform will be less than what it would be if they voted in favor of it.
Ignacio Mier, coordinator of Morena [in the Chamber of Deputies], warned that if the opposition votes against the initiative, they will be "shooting themselves in the foot." For Mier, everything changed after the march on November 13, where hundreds of thousands of citizens demanded not to touch the INE. After the march, Mier admitted, the opposition regrouped, "seeing party interests," and thereby eliminated the possibility of negotiating a joint electoral reform. Mier assured that there could still be an agreement with opposition legislators. However, he reiterated that his caucus is already working on an electoral reform for secondary laws.
Salvador Caro, from Citizen's Movement [a small opposition party that isn't part of the coalition opposition] said,
"This proposal weakens the INE, distorts the electoral system, centralizes the electoral processes, and weakens political representation; that is what they are promoting."
The coordinator of deputies of the PAN [National Action Party, conservative and part of the opposition coalition] Jorge Romero, described Morena's proposal as toxic and regressive and questioned the veracity of Mier's proposal to revise the secondary legislation.
The United Committees will meet on Monday, November 28 to rule on the initiative. It is expected to pass and then will go to the full Chamber of Deputies the following day for a vote.
According to Morena's deputy coordinator, Leonel Godoy, in the event that it does not reach a simple majority, they will have proposals for modifications to the secondary laws ready that same week.