Although the opposition insistently criticizes that the new electoral reforms promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador are to the detriment of the country the democracy that prevails in Mexico has allowed this reach of the president, with the support of the legislative majorities, and will also allow, in any case, that they be declared constitutional, or not, by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.
democratic game
Political scientist and academic Juan Pablo Navarret analyzed for THE DEBATE that despite the criticism, the obradorista government is betting on the modification of certain institutions, but following a legal route.
He considered that this might not be well perceived or received by the opposition because they are, from their perspective, trying to change the plays or the electoral rules. But she remembered that It is a commitment to the path of the majority, something that democracies allow.
“It is not that an institution disappears through a decree. No, it is following the legislative route”, he insisted. In that same democratic path, he said that another actor is going to intervene, in terms of seeing if the reforms are constitutional or not, which is the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. “It is not more democratic if the opposition stops the reforms than if the ruling party approves majorities, because the democratic game can have those options,” he said.
Transformation
By contrast, Érika Granados Aguilar, public policy specialistconsidered that with the Plan B is cutting off the organ that had been under construction and in evolution for decades in Mexico, “the conductive threads are being removed,” he said.
The researcher from the Autonomous Metropolitan University acknowledged that Mexico needs a change in electoral matters, but not under the terms in which they were approved changes in the Official Gazette of the Federation on March 2. “We are in evolution and it is a priority to have in-depth electoral changes, so we hope that the Court has the opportunity to do that job,” he said.
Affectations
The reform package proposes changes to 13 articles of both the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures (Legipe) and the General Law of Parties. Also, it eliminates the professional career service, for which reason the specialist pointed out that those who come to replace officials will be temporary personnel, not specialists, who do not know what will happen in the states when there are elections, in addition to the fact that society is polarized and That doesn’t pay for democracy either. Therefore, this would make organizing the elections depend, again, on appointees, who in turn are going to be appointed by the Selection Committee, that is, by people hired with no experience, no track record and probably the government itself, added for THE DEBATE Mauricio Merino, doctor in political science.
Bells
“It is very serious, not only because They can have a bias, and they will have it, political, and they can twist the electoral organization that we had already managed to stabilize over these years, but also, there is a risk that they do not even know how to do it ”, criticized Merino; Another aspect that worries him is that allows governments to campaign for the majority party.
“That was fought for decades, it was won, it had already been achieved with great difficulty, because presidents have always behaved badly, all of them, but at least we had managed to limit that government intervention,” he criticized.
Context
“There are no fingers,” says former official
He is also an academic at the University of Guadalajara Mauricio Merino He was president of the Electoral Professional Service Commission, from the autonomous IFE. “My task there was transparency and professional electoral service, I chaired both commissions of the General Council of the IFE, for seven years,” he shared.
Based on that experience, he revealed that nobody was appointed by finger, by recommendation and that nobody went up, but by contest and for a very baroque system to guarantee the most absolute transparency and impartiality in the voting. He added that they were very capable people, to such an extent that a master’s degree in electoral processes was designed. “It is a very well developed and well recognized service, Plan B eliminates it, it is incredible that it eliminates it,” he insisted.
