Mexico’s Senate approves big cuts to election agency

Mexico’s Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a legal reform that will gut the vast majority of the country’s professional election bureaucracy, with the opposition warning it would put democracy at risk.

The changes spearheaded by populist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador includes deep cuts and a reorganisation of the INE, which runs elections and is credited with cementing the country’s transition to democracy.

López Obrador argues that INE, which enjoys high levels of public trust, is corrupt and too expensive.

The fate of the reform could be the most important test of Mexico’s institutions during the presidency of López Obrador, who has tried to weaken the independence of agencies in charge of issues from energy to human rights. The debate over the measure has been tense, with the opposition calling citizens to a mass protest on Sunday in Mexico City’s main square.

“López Obrador’s regressive, toxic, perverted, anti-democratic reform is coming from the top down,” Dante Delgado, leader of the opposition Movimiento Ciudadano party said in the debate. “He is destroying the work and fight of millions of Mexicans to create a democratic, impartial system.” 

In the coming months the country’s Supreme Court will have to decide whether the reform is constitutional. The court recently appointed a new chief justice, Norma Piña Hernández, who is seen as more independent than her predecessor. To strike the changes down, at least eight of the 11 justices must vote against it.

INE has said that the changes were drafted without prior analysis and that they would put Mexico’s elections at risk. It would mean an 85 per cent cut in staff for the professional electoral service, which carries out essential functions such as administering the electoral roll, organising and training citizen overseers of voting booths and counting votes.

The reform also compresses the timeframe for organising elections and loosen rules on public officials campaigning while in office.

López Obrador has long had INE in his sights, particularly since he narrowly lost a presidential election in 2006. He says it is too expensive relative to other electoral institutes in the region and it has been captured by conservatives.

In tandem with the measure, a committee mostly designated by members of the ruling Morena party will soon choose four new commissioners for INE’s 11-member board. The combination has analysts worried that next year’s presidential vote could be compromised.

“These legal changes put Mexicans’ right to vote in free, fair and credible elections at risk,” said Tyler Mattiace, Mexico researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It will make it easier for the party in power to stay in power and harder for the INE to ensure a level playing field in the 2024 elections.”