From López Portillo to Peña Nieto, these were the electoral reforms in Mexico

Ricardo Monreal, president of the Political Coordination Board of the House of Senators, said that in the last week of April 2022 the Congress of the Union could receive the two constitutional reforms announced by President Andrés Manuel López Obrado r in electoral matters and the National Guard.

The regular session in the Chamber of Senators and Deputies ends on April 30, however, and although the bill would have little time for its analysis and opinion, there is no impediment to the federal executive sending its two bills and bringing them to the plenary in a possible special session.

President López Obrador announced that after the revocation of the mandate he would send to Congress an electoral reform initiative aimed at modifying the mechanism for selecting the directors of the National Electoral Institute (INE), who would be elected by popular vote and the candidates would be proposed by the authorities Executive, Legislative and Judicial.

Lorenzo Córdova considered that the Mexican system does not currently require electoral reform, as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has insisted: “We can go to the 2024 elections without modification,” he stressed.

And he said that today, fortunately, nobody knows who will win the elections: “Everyone is certain about what the rules are, there is a healthy uncertainty about who will win the elections, until the electoral authority releases the results and the only certainty there is is that Aguascalientes will have for the first time occasion a governor”.

Morenist Porfirio Muñoz Ledo warned that a reform such as the one proposed by López Obrador would be regressive in the democratic life of Mexico and recalled that it took many years of struggle to achieve an electoral system like the current one.

After a long period of political upheaval following the Mexican Revolution and its subsequent effects on political life dominated by the official party made up of the warlords of its armed movement, electoral reforms were implemented in our country in 1964, 1977, 1987, 1990, 1993 and 1996, which aimed to make a more competitive, open and plural political and party system during the twentieth century.

Already in the new century, two major electoral reforms were introduced, that of 2007 and later in 2014.

Legislative studies indicate that the first stage of electoral reforms are classified as progressive and limited, which were presented from 1964 to 1986 and their purpose was to prevent the opposition, whose presence helped to legitimize the hegemonic party system (PRI), from disappearing from the political scene, either by extreme weakness or lack of incentives to continue the electoral struggle.

In 1958, the National Action Party (PAN) withdrew its six deputies from Congress in protest against what it considered electoral fraud in that year's presidential election. This situation eventually led to the reform of 1964, which introduced the party deputies, the seed of the current deputies of proportional representation.

The second time that the PRI held itself as a single party was in 1976, when the PAN, due to internal conflicts, could not run for president. For this reason, José López Portillo, from the official party, was the only candidate and his victory was more than predictable.

In 1977, President José López Portillo launched a new progressive electoral reform to stimulate the opposition and integrate new parties into the electoral game.

The second stage of electoral reforms in Mexico was described as counter-reforms because they were regressive in nature.

This new period began in 1987, when the opposition strengthened to such an extent that it began to constitute a real challenge to the party's hegemony in government, so the intention of the electoral reforms in that period was to allow, despite the opposition's advance, not even the control of the electoral authority to be lost nor the absolute majority of the Chamber of Deputies.

The reforms of 1987, 1990 and 1993 allowed the PRI to maintain an absolute majority in the Lower House, even with increasingly smaller votes, which is why critics and opponents described them as “counter-reforms” and this stage in the evolution of electoral legislation is identified as “regressive”.

The 1990 one is relevant because it was the origin of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), which also sees the incorporation of a specialized body to assume and settle disputes in electoral matters, the Federal Electoral Tribunal was born, predecessor of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judiciary of the Federation.

In 1996, another phase of electoral reforms began following the changes and risks generated by the outbreak of the armed conflict in Chiapas, in addition, the problems of the immediate electoral process convinced Ernesto Zedillo of the need to open up the electoral system in a real way and no longer in a limited way.

The 1996 electoral reform granted full autonomy to the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), freeing it from any government agent under its leadership. In addition, limits were placed on the overrepresentation of the majority party by 8% of its overall vote obtained, all of which resulted, during the 1997 legislative elections, in the loss of the absolute majority of the Chamber of Deputies by the PRI.

After Felipe Calderón's tight triumph in the 2006 presidential election, another reform took place in 2007 that aimed to make the IFE the sole body responsible for distributing advertising spaces in the media, guaranteeing an equitable distribution between political parties. In addition, it was possible to restrict the federal government to disseminate propaganda during the period of an election, so as not to benefit the candidate of the official party.

Already in the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto, the reform of 2014 is being presented, which aims to resolve the disparity with which the federal elections were organized. In addition, the Federal Electoral Institute became the National Electoral Institute (INE), granting it greater powers and strengthening its autonomy from political powers.

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