INE Reform Raises Concern Over Future Of Mexico's Democracy

The Mexican Senate yesterday approved President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's “Plan B” reforms to the budget of the National Electoral Institute (INE) – a revised version of a more dramatic overhaul of the body which failed last year.

• Lopez Obrador claims the reforms will restrain economic interests in politics and save USD$150 million a year, but critics argue reorganising the INE will gut Mexico’s electoral bureaucracy and hinder basic functions of the Democratic process like operating polling stations and counting votes.
• INE head Lorenzo Cordova says the changes threaten "certain, trustworthy and transparent" elections.
• Tyler Mattiace at Human Rights Watch says the changes put credible elections “at risk,” and “make it easier for the party in power to stay in power...”
• Dante Delgado, leader of the opposition Movimiento Ciudadano: “López Obrador’s regressive, toxic, perverted, anti-democratic reform is coming from the top down.”
• The move, which comes ahead of the 2024 general election where the term-limited Lopez Obrador's successor will be chosen, will be challenged in the Supreme Court where it will require eight of the 11 justices to agree to strike it down.