A massive demonstration against the government and its electoral reform project

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Mexico City on Sunday against leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s electoral reform bill, the largest anti-incumbency rally in nearly four years.

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Waves of people flooded the central avenue of Paseo de la Reforma to reject the project, which, according to its opponents, threatens the independence of the National Electoral Institute (INE), which has been responsible for conducting elections since its creation in October 1990. AFP team.

Among the demonstrators were former president Vicente Fox (2000-2006) deputy Santiago Creel (who was rotating president of the Chamber of Deputies for a year), both members of the National Action Party (PAN, right-wing opposition).

AFP

In the crowd, Graciela Aberell, an English teacher, judged the reform project “too serious.”

Mrs Aberell, 53, who accompanied her husband, alleged that the current president “wants all elections to depend on the government again so he can manipulate them to his will and stay in power”.

Despite nearly four years in office, President López Obrador is accused of covering up INE fraud during the two previous elections he lost in 2006 and 2012.

Mr. López Obrador was elected in 2018 to a single six-year term that will expire in 2024, when the next presidential election is scheduled.

Demonstrators wore INE colored pink T-shirts.

AFP

“I’m not corrupt, classist, racist, hypocrite,” declared one poster, referring to the adjectives López Obrador could use to disqualify reform opponents at a demonstration last week.

“It’s not against today’s government, but against any government that wants to control elections today or tomorrow,” Francisco Videla, a 50-year-old businessman who came with family and friends, told AFP. .

AFP

The reform calls for the members of the INE’s board of directors to be elected by popular vote, as well as reducing subsidies to political parties.

The reform also plans to reduce the number of federal deputies from 500 to 300. The number of senators will increase from 128 to 96.

Mr López Obrador’s party and its allies dominate both chambers.