The current voter registry exceeds 93 million. However, low turnout costs the country too much money. Each vote made in 2021 was almost 300 pesos.
Since coming to power, President López Obrador has been a staunch critic of the National Electoral Institute. He has practically accused him of being to blame for our elections being so costly, denouncing poor budget management and an excessive burden of prerogatives on political parties.
The tension between the federal government and the INE has been growing strongly, which has caused the institute to seek to explain to citizens in detail what each peso is spent on. He argues that he has saved money by spending less on central offices and that a substantial portion of that spending has gone to district offices. And the items that have grown are those of auditing, updating the electoral register, linking with local public electoral bodies (OPLEs) and organizing local electoral processes.
This is because the electoral reforms that have taken place after each federal election have added new tasks to the INE; in particular, assume the organization of local elections. But even with these increases, electoral spending is concentrated on updating the electoral register and issuing voter credentials, which represents more than 30% of its annual budget.
Let’s get to know the new national debate, since it will be focused on the electoral reform that AMLO has sent to the Chamber of Deputies. The president seeks to implement several points and modify the current electoral structure, including:
– Eliminate ordinary public financing for political parties.
– Disappear the National Electoral Institute (INE) and create, in its place, the National Institute for Elections and Consultations (INEC), as the only national body in charge of organizing elections.
– Election, by popular vote, of electoral councilors and magistrates.
– Drastically reduce public funding for political parties and eliminate the 200 federal deputies and 32 multi-member senators or proportional representation.
López Obrador’s proposal supposes that it will strongly divide the debate in the Chamber of Deputies, since practically every political party – allied to the president and the opposition – has totally contrary initiatives, ranging from giving more budget to the INE and implementing electronic voting, to implement the second electoral round, among many others.
