Mexicans Protest Election Reforms, Echoing Debates in Other Democracies
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Protests broke out in cities throughout Mexico on Sunday over President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s electoral reform law.
The Controversy: On February 22, Mexico’s Congress passed López Obrador’s proposal to limit the powers and cut the staff of the country’s election administrator, the National Electoral Institute (Instituto Nacional Electoral, or INE). López Obrador has argued that the law would save money and make voting more efficient, but critics say the law would weaken a key pillar of the country’s democracy. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) issued a joint statement accusing López Obrador of “repeated attempts to sabotage Mexico’s democratic institutions,” saying the new law “not only sets the clock back on its democracy, but also U.S.-Mexico relations.”
For Context: Debates over electoral systems in other countries have echoed those in the U.S. On January 8, Brazilians protesting the election loss of Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace — echoing the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
How the Media Covered It: AllSides could find no original coverage from right-rated outlets by Monday afternoon; some right-rated outlets included wire service articles from AP (Lean Left bias). Coverage was widespread in left and center-rated outlets, including outlets based in other countries. Coverage was unclear on the number of protesters; while protest organizers said over 500,000 turned out in Mexico City alone, government sources said only 90,000 showed up.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Center
Thousands protest in Mexico against cuts to electoral watchdogTens of thousands of people turned out across Mexico on Sunday to protest against legal changes passed this week to slash the electoral agency’s budget, fearing that it put the country’s hard-fought democracy at risk. Dressed in shirts, dresses and hats in pink and white, the colours of the electoral institute INE, protesters marched to the capital’s main square to hear speeches by a former supreme court judge and an ex-congresswoman. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had pushed the package of laws passed by Congress this week, alleging that INE was...
From the Left
Mexican protesters see electoral overhaul as a threat to democracyJuan Manuel Martinez remembers the days when he would vote in Mexico’s elections with no confidence that they were being run fairly.
For decades, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, remained in power by buying votes or stuffing ballot boxes. Election after election, the same story repeated itself.
“No election was clean, democracy didn’t exist, the government both controlled the elections and was the referee, which isn’t right,” said Martinez, a retired 70-year-old accountant. “We always knew that they were tricking us, that the candidate that was always going to...
From the Center
Thousands Protest Against Electoral Overhaul in MexicoThousands gathered in cities throughout Mexico on Sunday to protest against President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's drive to shrink the independent electoral authority, arguing the changes threaten democracy — an accusation he vigorously denies.
Mexico's Congress last week approved a major overhaul of the National Electoral Institute (INE), which Lopez Obrador has repeatedly attacked as corrupt and inefficient.
Critics of the legislation, which will slash the INE's budget and staff, are holding marches in Mexico City and other major cities as the contentious shake-up appears poised to go before the...
AllSides Picks
May 6th, 2024
May 6th, 2024