Tens of thousands of people demonstrated Sunday in Mexico City against an electoral reform approved by the government which threatens, according to the opposition, the National Electoral Institute (INE) in charge of organizing the next presidential election scheduled for mid-2024.
Demonstrators dressed in white and pink (the colors of the INE) gathered in the central square of the Zocalo, the largest in Mexico, under the slogan
According to the authorities of Mexico City, some 90,000 people took part in the demonstration, far from the 500,000 demonstrators put forward by Marko Cortés, leader of the National Action Party (PAN, right), opposition party. Other protests took place across the country.
Definitively approved on Wednesday, the electoral reform reduces the budget and jobs at the INE, which the President of the Republic, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, accuses of having covered up fraud in the past and of costing public finances dearly.
“Key elements (…) of the Mexican electoral system which has allowed the peaceful and periodic renewal of powers through the free and secret vote may run the risk of being affected”, according to the INE.
The INE and the opposition parties have announced an appeal against the reform before the judges of the Supreme Court.
“We trust them (…) to preserve the democratic life of the country”, declared a speaker, José Ramon Cossio Diaz, himself a former magistrate at the Supreme Court. He accuses the current president of wanting to “appropriate the electoral system”.
The reform “is a step backwards for democracy”, told AFP Alejandro Rodriguez, a 61-year-old lawyer, who also came to “protest” against the left-wing president. His policy “harms Mexicans”, he believes.
Follower of political division, Mr. Lopez Obrador described his opponents as “corrupt” who want to return to power.
He estimated that the demonstrators were also defending the ex-secretary (minister) of Security, Genaro Garcia Luna, who has just been found guilty of drug trafficking by a court in the United States. Genaro Garcia Luna had been a minister under right-wing President Felipe Calderon (2006-2012).
“They come to say: we are not touching the INE, but also we are not touching Garcia Luna and basically: we are not touching the corrupt and conservative regime,” Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday.
The president, still popular after more than four years in office, announced a march on March 18 for the 85th anniversary of the nationalization of oil production and exploitation by his predecessor Lazaro Cardenas.
Elected in 2018, Mr. Lopez Obrador will leave power at the end of his single six-year mandate provided for by the Constitution.
His Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and especially the mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, both of the ruling Morena party, are the favorites in the race to succeed Mr. Lopez Obrador according to opinion polls.
A first demonstration of the opposition against the reform had gathered on November 13 in the streets of Mexico City tens of thousands of people.
Two weeks later, Mr. Lopez Obrador mobilized tens of thousands of people in the streets to present the results of his four years in power.
02/27/2023 04:39:58 – Mexico (Mexique) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
