PRI: there is no political negotiation with Morena for an electoral reform

Georgina Saldierna and Enrique Mendez

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday, October 28, 2022, p. 6

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the Chamber of Deputies pointed out that there is no political negotiation with Morena towards an electoral reform, while the PRI coordinator, Rubén Moreira, met with his counterparts from the National Action parties (PAN) and from the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Jorge Romero and Luis Espinosa, to restore the Va por México coalition.

At a time when the PAN leadership proposed a public definition and that in Morena the approval of the reform is calculated at the end of November, that is, after the vote on the 2023 Budget, Moreira slipped in a press conference: Shall I tell you a joke? Ask me where I had breakfast in the morning.

– Who did you have breakfast with?

–Ah, well, with the PAN and with the PRD. What do we have for breakfast? Me, chilaquiles with cecina and egg. And I want to tell you that the PRD kitchen has improved a lot.

– Is the alliance going to be restored? What did they discuss?

-Many pretty things, I’ll leave it there.

In the PRI it was suggested that the conversation was aimed at starting to build an agreement around the political-electoral reform, when Morena was betting that the tricolor would support a constitutional modification on the matter.

Moreira explained that, in contrast to the versions that the PRI has a Morena negotiation, there isn’t. The PRI’s position is very clear: we will not violate the autonomy of the National Electoral Institute (INE), nor that of the courts, nor will we disappear the OPLEs. What’s more, the only one that doesn’t have an initiative as a party is us. National Action presented a constitutional reform initiative. We haven’t done anything. So mistrust doesn’t have to come around here.

If anything, he specified, the tricolor could propose a reform to annul elections when it is proven that organized crime was involved, as well as make the assassination of candidates for elected positions imprescriptible.

In parallel, the PRI sent the list of its three deputies who will be part of the working group that will finish ordering the initiatives to reform the Constitution and the electoral legal framework: Lorena Piñón, Javier Casique and Hiram Hernández; and his substitutes are the party’s national leader, Alejandro Moreno, Marco Mendoza and Moreira himself.

In a separate press conference, Morena’s coordinator, Ignacio Mier, explained that with this the working group is practically integrated. This, because MC decided to isolate himself from the analysis of a possible electoral reform.

Mier explained that after the Expenditure Budget, modifications to the electoral legal framework could be approved and constitutional reforms that achieve consensus building. However, in other benches it is estimated that the discussion could last until next year.

He was also asked what would be the irreducible themes for Morena. We have not yet defined what they are. Nor would I want to get ahead of myself out of political prudencehe indicated.