PENDULUM THE Proposed changes to Mexico’s Electoral Law

Established 1974 | Volume 52, Edition 21

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Michael

Matthews,

professor of history, discusses electoral law changes in Mexico

Michael Leung Elon News Network

The Federal Government of Mexico passed a proposal Feb. 23 that would weaken the Instituto Nacional Electoral, Mexico’s election agency. The proposal was presented by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of Mexico and founder of the left-wing Morena Party. If passed, it would cut salaries and funds to election offices, training for citizens who operate and manage polling offices and reduce sanctions for candidates who fail to report their campaign spending.

In response, hundreds of thousands of citizens marched into Mexico City’s main plaza Feb. 26 to protest López Obrador’s electoral law changes. Protesters dressed in white and pink – the colors of the Instituto Nacional Electoral – and shouted slogans such as, “Don’t touch my vote!”

Protesters fear that López Obrador’s changes will bring them back to the 1990s, where miscounting, campaign overspending and electoral pressure tactics were common. However, the president denies that his reforms are a threat to democracy, claiming that the accusations are the words of the classist elite. He claims Mexico’s public agency for organizing federal elections, Instituto Nacional Electoral, spends far too much money, and funds should be allocated toward efforts to help the poor instead.

Michael Matthews, a history professor at Elon University, discussed the effects and the concerns of citizens in Mexico after López Obrador’s changes to electoral law.