Tens of thousands protest in Mexico against the electoral reform of López Obrador

First modification: 11/13/2022 – 23:16Last modification: 11/13/2022 – 23:14

Under the slogan “The INE is not touched”, large contingents of protesters gathered in the central Paseo de la Reforma this Sunday, November 13, to reject the initiative that, they consider, threatens the autonomy and independence of the electoral referee.

“That’s why I came, to defend the INE!” Was the main cry of the attendees who wore pink clothes, the color that identifies the National Electoral Institute.

According to President López Obrador, the electoral entity endorsed fraud in the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections, where the then candidate was defeated.

“We are gathered here with a single clear and transcendent objective: to defend the electoral system that several generations of Mexicans built,” said José Woldenberg, former president of the electoral authority, before the crowd that gathered on the wide esplanade of the Monument to the Revolution, point end of tour.

Graciela Aberel, an English teacher who was accompanied by her husband, argued that the president’s proposal is “very serious” since he wants the organization of the elections to pass into the hands of the government, as was the case in Mexico before the founding of the autonomous entity in 1990.

“I’m not corrupt”

“what you want [López Obrador] is that once again all the elections depend on the government to be able to manipulate them at will and be able to stay in power,” Aberel, 53, told AFP.

The next presidential election is scheduled for 2024, when the single six-year term of the current president, elected in 2018, ends.

Some posters read messages such as “I am not corrupt, classist, racist, hypocritical,” alluding to the adjectives with which López Obrador referred to those who would participate in the march last week.

Personalities from Mexican politics also joined the protest, such as former President Vicente Fox (2000-2006) or the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Santiago Creel, both from the conservative National Action Party (PAN), a strong opponent of López Obrador.

“The major problem, the one that has brought us here, the one that forces us to take to the streets (…) is that the government wants to destroy a good part of what has been built,” said Woldenberg, to applause.

By “right to choose”

Due to the massive participation, many of the attendees could not reach the esplanade where the closing speech of the protest was held, which occurs on the same day that López Obrador turns 69.

The president celebrated his birthday with his family at his country house in Palenque, in the southern state of Chiapas.

“This is not against (…) the current government, it is against any government that now or in the future wants to take control of an election,” said Francisco Videla, a 50-year-old businessman who He came with his family and some friends.

The reform proposes, among other measures, that the members of the Board of Directors of the INE be elected by popular vote, as well as a cut in the financing that political parties receive according to the current rules.

The initiative also proposes reducing the number of federal deputies from 500 to 300, while the number of senators would go from the current 128 to only 96.

“I think we must defend what we as citizens have a right to, such as electing” our rulers, said María José Herrera, a 19-year-old student who also attended with her family.