It is a controversial reform that was adopted on Wednesday, February 22, in Mexico. The Senate gave the green light to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) to cut into the budget of the National Electoral Institute, in charge of organizing the polls. One year before the 2024 presidential elections in this Central American country, this decision angers the opposition, which intends to seize the Supreme Court.
” This is an attack on Mexican democracy “, protest the opposition parliamentarians. The reform plans to drastically reduce the staff and the budget of the National Electoral Institute. The Mexican press wonders: with thousands of fewer observers and civil servants, will this organization have the means to effectively supervise the next elections? Since the early 2000s, the National Electoral Institute has nevertheless become a pillar of Mexican democracy, a symbol of the end of the one-party regime.
Make it easier for Mexicans living abroad to vote?
On the presidential majority side, we are defending a measure that would make it possible to save money and, among other things, to facilitate the vote of Mexicans living abroad. Because the presidential election of 2024 is on everyone’s mind. The Constitution prevents President Obrador, who came to power in 2018, from running for a second term next year. But the left-wing Morena party, which he founded, enjoys strong popularity in the polls.
“Don’t touch my vote”
For the right-wing opposition, if the battle has been lost in Parliament, it will continue on two fronts: first in the Supreme Court, where the judges will examine the constitutionality of the reform. But also in the streets of Mexico. At the call of the opposition, demonstrations are expected next Sunday in the capital México and several cities of the country, behind the slogan “Hands off my vote”.
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