Anti-government demonstrators protest against recent reforms to the country’s electoral law by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that they say threaten democracy, in The Zocalo, Mexico City’s main square, February 26, 2023. Photo Credit: AP
Tens of thousands of people filled Mexico City’s sprawling main plaza on Sunday to protest President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s electoral law changes they say threaten democracy and could mark a return to the past.
The plaza is generally thought to hold about 100,000 people, but many protesters who could not fit in the square spilled out into the surrounding streets.
The marchers were mostly dressed in white and pink—the colors of the National Election Institute—and chanted “Don’t touch my vote!” As they were raising slogans. Like a similar but somewhat larger march on 13 November, the marchers appeared in a somewhat richer than average performance.
The change in electoral law attracted the attention of the US government.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols wrote on his Twitter account that “Today, in Mexico, we see a huge debate on electoral reforms that is testing the independence of electoral and judicial institutions.”
“The United States supports independent, well-resourced electoral institutions that strengthen democratic processes and the rule of law,” Mr. Nichols wrote.
Mr López Obrador’s proposals were passed last week. Once enacted, they would cut salaries, funding for local elections offices, and training for citizens who operate and oversee vote centers. They would also reduce sanctions for candidates who fail to report campaign spending.
Mexico’s president denies the reforms are a threat to democracy and says the criticism is elitist, arguing the institute costs too much money. He says that this money should be spent on the poor.
But protester Enrique Bastien, a 64-year-old vet, said with the reforms Mr López Obrador “wants to return to the past” when “the government controlled elections.”
“It was a life with no freedom,” she recalls of the 1970s and ’80s, when the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, ruled Mexico with fraud and handouts.
Fernando Gutierrez, 55, a small businessman, said Mr. López Obrador wanted to lead Mexico toward a socialist government. “It’s clear, with aid to Cuba,” Mr. Gutierrez said.
Mr Lopez Obrador has imported coronavirus vaccines, medical staff and stone railway ballast from Cuba, but has shown little taste for socialist policies at home.
Many other protesters were wary of vote-counting, high campaign spending, and electoral pressure tactics that were common in Mexico before the formation of an independent electoral agency in the 1990s.
Mr Lopez Obrador said on Thursday he would sign the changes into law, even though he expected court challenges. Many at Sunday’s protest expressed hope that Mexico’s Supreme Court would overturn some of the changes, as courts have done with other presidential initiatives.
Mr. Lorenzo Cordova, head of the National Electoral Institute, has said that the reforms “tend to cut off the thousands of people who work every day to guarantee trustworthy elections, something that will certainly pose a risk to future elections”. ”
Mr López Obrador appeared unperturbed by the court challenges, saying on Thursday he believed the changes would be upheld because none were “outside the law”.
However, in the past he has frequently attacked Mexico’s judiciary, claiming the judges are part of a conservative conspiracy against his administration.
The president’s strident opposition to the judiciary, as well as to regulatory and oversight agencies, has raised fears among some that he is seeking to reinstate the practices of the old PRI, which had governed Mexico’s presidency for 70 years. bend the rules of the U.S., until Mexico is defeated. 2000 election.
Elections in Mexico are expensive by international standards, as almost all legal campaign funding is, by law, supplied by the government. The Electoral Institute also issues the Secure Voter ID card which is the most commonly accepted form of identification in Mexico and oversees voting in remote and often dangerous corners of the country.
Mr. López Obrador is highly popular in Mexico with an approval rating of nearly 60%. While he cannot run for re-election, his Morena party is favored in next year’s national elections and the opposition is in disarray.
Part of his popular appeal comes from railing against high-paid government bureaucrats, and he resents the fact that some top election officials are paid more than the president.