Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/MEXICO CITY: Huge protests have taken place in several cities of Mexico against what protesters claim are government’s efforts to undermine electoral authorities.
The largest was in Mexico City, where organizers claim 500,000 people marched on the city’s major plaza. The local government placed the figure at 90,000. Last week, lawmakers decided to cut the National Electoral Institute’s (INE) budget and staffing. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador charges the Institute of being partisan. Opponents, however, see the recent vote as an assault on democracy itself and are urging the Supreme Court to overturn it as unconstitutional.
Mexico City’s famed Zocalo Square
Large crowds gathered on Sunday in Mexico City‘s famed Zocalo Square. In the city’s heart, the demonstrations spread to nearby streets. Many other towns held smaller, peaceful protests as well. Many demonstrators held signs that said, “Do not touch the INE,” in Spanish. Following a comparable vote in the lower house of parliament, the reforms were passed by the Mexican Senate on Wednesday. After President López Obrador signs the changes, they take effect. Will Grant, the BBC’s correspondent in Mexico, claims that it may be the country’s most divisive political topic at the moment.
López Obrador has long been critical of the INE, whose staff supervises elections. He was elected in July 2018 after two prior unsuccessful attempts. He charged the independent organization with cheating last month, alleging that its employees covered up “the stuffing of ballot boxes, falsifying of [election] records, and vote buying.” In his first run for the presidency, in 2006, he fell short of defeating Felipe Calderón, a conservative opponent, by less than one percentage point. López Obrador contested the outcome as fraudulent for months and declined to accept the outcome. He also disputed the outcome of the 2012 election, in which he came in second to Enrique Pea Nieto.
López Obrador has been advocating for an INE change since his victory in 2018 and claims it will save the taxpayers $150 million (£125 million) annually by drastically cutting the agency’s staff.
