Politics: A reform designed to turn the clock back to the era of electoral fraud
Minutes after President López Obrador’s political-electoral constitutional reform predictably went down to defeat in Congress earlier this month, he sent the Chamber of Deputies his 735-page draft of 500 changes to six ordinary laws to transform the National Electoral Institute (INE) and ostensibly "to bring to an end electoral fraud". Regardless of the date on which the reform eventually takes effect, its new regulatory framework radically disrupts the electoral system. It structurally impairs the National Electoral Institute’s organizational, operational and financial capacities and clearly tilts the election competition "field" in favor of the government and the party in power.
This would mark the first time in Mexico that an electoral reform was not the product of demands from the opposition but rather was designed by the government, and not only was it never discussed with the political actors involved but it was also rammed through Congress over the objections of all four opposition parties. This is a serious weakness that will undermine the legitimacy of the next federal elections and ensure that the winners in 2024 will potentially be the subject of a post-electoral political conflict of incalculable proportions.
This week we provide a chronicle of both the shoddy and unconstitutional reform process to date, along with an analysis of its implications and the next phases of challenges to the reform once it is passed, most likely when Congress reconvenes in February.
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