Tens of hundreds of individuals packed Mexico City’s huge primary square on Sunday to protest against President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s electoral changes, which they are saying threaten democracy and will mean a throwback to the past.
The plaza is generally thought to hold nearly 100,000 people, but many protesters who couldn’t fit into the plaza poured into the nearby streets.
The marchers were dressed mostly in white and pink – the colours of the National Electoral Institute – and shouted slogans like “Don’t touch my vote!” As with the same but barely larger march on November 13, the marchers appeared to be barely more affluent than those that attended the common demonstration.
Changes in the electoral law have caught the eye of the US government.
![Elections in Mexico are expensive by international standards, in part because almost all legal campaign funding is legally provided by the government.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/Mexicos-electoral-law-3.jpg?w=1024)
Brian A. Nichols, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, tweeted that “There is a large debate in Mexico today about electoral reforms that test the independence of the electoral and judicial institutions.”
“America supports independent, well-equipped electoral institutions that strengthen democratic processes and the rule of law,” Nichols wrote.
López Obrador’s proposals were accepted last week. Once enacted, they would scale back salaries, funding for local polling offices and training for residents who run and oversee polling stations. It might also reduce sanctions for candidates who don’t report campaign expenses.
![Many of the other demonstrators were simply afraid of a miscount,](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/Mexicos-electoral-law-2.jpg?w=1024)
Mexico’s president denies that the reforms pose a threat to democracy and says the criticism is elitist, arguing that the institute is spending an excessive amount of money. He says the cash should go to the poor.
But protester Enrique Bastien, a 64-year-old veterinarian, said that with the reforms, López Obrador “wants to return to the past” when “the federal government controlled the elections.”
“It was a life without independence,” said Bastien, recalling the Seventies and Eighties, when the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ruled Mexico through fraud and handouts.
![an electoral law that they say threatens democracy in Mexico City's main square, The Zocalo, Sunday, February 26, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/Mexicos-electoral-law-4.jpg?w=1024)
Fernando Gutierrez, a 55-year-old small businessman, said López Obrador wanted to lead Mexico to a socialist government. “It’s obvious given the help to Cuba,” Gutierrez said.
López Obrador imported coronavirus vaccines, medical employees, and stone railroad ballast from Cuba, but he has no taste for socialist politics in the country.
Many other demonstrators simply feared vote miscounting, excessive campaign spending, and electoral pressure tactics that were common in Mexico prior to the creation of an independent election agency in the Nineteen Nineties.
![reforms introduced by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to the country's electoral law, which they say threaten democracy, towards Mexico's main square, The Zocalo, Sunday, February 26, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/Mexicos-electoral-law-5.jpg?w=1024)
Lóz Obrador said on Thursday he would sign the law changes, though he expects court hearings. Many in Sunday’s protest expressed hope that Mexico’s Supreme Court would overturn a number of the changes, because the courts have done with other presidential initiatives.
Lorenzo Cordova, head of the National Electoral Institute, said the reforms “are designed to cut off hundreds of people that work day by day to guarantee trustworthy elections, which can obviously put future elections in danger.”
López Obrador appeared nonchalant concerning the court challenges, saying on Thursday he believed the changes would stand because none were “out of the law.”
Nevertheless, in the past, he has often attacked the Mexican judiciary and claimed that the judges are a part of a conservative conspiracy against his administration.
![Anti-government demonstrators protest against President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's recent reforms to the country's electoral law, which they say threaten democracy, in Mexico City's main square, The Zocalo, Sunday, February 26, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/Mexicos-electoral-law-6.jpg?w=1024)
The president’s fierce opposition to the judiciary, in addition to regulatory and oversight agencies, has raised fears amongst some that he’s looking for to reinstate the practices of the previous PRI, which bent the foundations to keep Mexico’s presidency for 70 years until its defeat in the presidential election. 2000 election
Elections in Mexico are expensive by international standards, in part because just about all legal campaign funding is, by law, provided by the federal government. The electoral institute also issues secure voter ID cards, probably the most widely accepted type of identification in Mexico, and oversees voting in distant and infrequently dangerous corners of the country.
Lóz Obrador stays very talked-about in Mexico, with an approval rating of around 60%. Although he’s ineligible for re-election, his Morena party is favored in next 12 months’s national elections and the opposition is in disarray.
A part of his popular appeal comes from railing against highly paid government bureaucrats, and he was angered by the undeniable fact that some top election officials earn greater than the president.