The most recommendable thing is that there is no electoral reform
For the electoral advisor José Roberto Ruiz, if the Executive’s electoral reform initiative is approved, the country would experience the greatest setbacks in this matter, hence the task will be to undertake new battles in order to advance in the consolidation of democracy.
“We are going to witness setbacks that cost other generations their lives. In the 90s when the PRD and the opposition will fight for the votes to be counted correctly. I believe that if this scenario of endorsing setbacks is confirmed, the battles have to be waged again, to recover what was lost, ”he highlights,
In this way, he considers that “the most recommended” is that an electoral reform is not approved, given that, with the current one, the federal processes of 2024 can be carried out.
“What would have to be done in order not to affect the INE and the equity between the political forces, because that initiative would be completely. I really only rescue the attempt to reduce the number of local councils at the local level, depending on the population that exists, because unfortunately there are very large local congresses, ”he explained.
He exemplified the case of the Veracruz congress, which has 50 deputies and 30 local districts, respectively, when at the federal level there are 20 federal districts.
He listed three central aspects of the initiative that would directly affect the autonomy of the INE:
-The elimination of the career civil service, which is detrimental, given that they are electoral officials who have achieved a high degree of specialization, given that they seek to hire temporary personnel.
“You don’t have to be very farsighted to know that government political operatives would be hired,” he noted.
-The election of councilors and magistrates by popular vote considerably violates the autonomy of both electoral authorities, because “in order to win elections, partisan structures are required.”
– The INE would no longer have the administration and updating of the electoral register, but the constitutional initiative does not say who would be entrusted with this attribution, although “it is not necessary to be very insightful to imagine that it would go to the government, to the Executive.”
And among the elements that would affect equity between the political forces is the supposed model of “pure” representation, with 32 multi-member lists, one in each state, with which legislative minorities would have less chance of reaching federal deputies.
The foregoing, because “today the so-called small parties with all the votes of an entire constituency, manage to get deputies, but if that vote is atomized, state by state, it will not be enough for them to get deputations.”
Another example that affects equity would be to suppress ordinary financing for national political parties, because it is evident that to do politics resources are required and there are political institutes that receive less, which would contrast with the Morena party.
And regarding the march next Sunday, he said that “I cannot speak for my colleagues, I would have to ask them, but I believe that the Mexico we want is one of freedom. So, I think we should respect this type of demonstration, which is welcome in a democratic country.”
