Mexico City, December 09, 2022
By Claudia Guerrero
At his Friday morning press conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador [aka AMLO] announced that legislators had promised to remove the "shield" from the electoral reform approved in the Chamber of Deputies that would enable the small parties allied to Morena [the Movement for National Regeneration, founded by López Obrador] to maintain their legal registration [eligible to participate in elections and supported by government funding] in case they do not reach [the required minimum of] 3 percent of the [national] vote.
...The PVEM [Mexico Green Party] and the PT [Workers Party] have been fundamental in achieving legislative majorities for [the López Obrador] government's legislative initiatives as they provide the minimum differences in votes over the opposition...
The President said:
"Changes were made to the electoral reform and now Adán [Adán Augusto López Hernández, Secretary of Internal Governemnt Affairs] is going to explain what those changes consisted of and how the legislators themselves have already promised to remove those additions".
Earlier this Friday, REFORMA reported that in exchange for the Workers Party (PT) and Green Party (PVEM) legislators' support of Morena, the government's "plan B" for electoral reform was modified to guarantee registration and resources to those little parties. [MV Note: "Plan A" consisted of changes to the Constitution that did not achieve the two-thirds majority of congressional votes required for passage.]
The reform to secondary laws approved by the Chamber of Deputies [immediately after being received shortly after midnight on Wednesday morning from the Secretary of Internal Government Affairs] included, in the case of candidates shared by multiple parties, the option to transfer votes [between the allied parties] and the minimum vote of 3% only needed to be achieved in a majority of states [i.e. 17 of 32], rather than nationally, as a requirement to maintain registration as a political party.
In the press conference at the National Palace, the Secretary of Internal Government Affairs announced that yesterday modifications were made to the legislation passed by the Chamber of Deputies since the text is unconstitutional.
"There are three modifications to the original legislation. In article 15 of the General Law of electoral processes an addition was made. It [originally] says or said that to preserve its registration, a national political party had to obtain at least 3 percent of the total vote cast. Yesterday, the president of the Senate's coordination board told me that a proposal that had been presented by the small parties' politicians as part of the working document was, by error, included in the final legislation. So, it was passed.
"The change consists of a statement that if a party did not receive 3 percent of the total vote cast but they received 3 percent in at least 17 state elections, they could retain their registration. This is an unconstitutional text. In fact, there is already a ruling on this from the Supreme Court of Justice regarding a past electoral process [Two new, small parties did not achieve the 3 percent cutoff in the 2018 election and, thus, lost their status and funding as official parties.]. Yesterday, they recognized the error."
López Hernández explained that the deputies asked the Chamber of Senators to modify the text and that they have even discussed the matter with Ricardo Monreal, leader of the Morena senators and president of the Political Coordination Board.
"Last night, I spoke with the president of the Senate board and with the presidents of the committees, and the modification will be made. The bill will be returned to the Chamber of Deputies so that they can...rectify the error. For sure, they will vote [on the change] next week and then return it [to the Senate]."
...The maintenance of the registration of the PT and PVEM parties that have been on the verge of losing it in recent elections translates into millions in public financing.
Between 2018 and 2022, the PT has received 1,244,719,046 pesos [US$63 million] while the Green obtained 1,670,881,242 pesos [US$84.6 million]. Together they would add up to almost 3 billion pesos [US$150 million], an amount similar to the savings that, according to AMLO, would be achieved with the implementation of Plan B which reduces the size of the INE [National Electoral Institute], combines its subdivisions and centralizes electoral processes [from a state to a national level].