Politics: Upcoming electoral reform—another significant blow to Mexican democracy

MEXICO - Report 11 Aug 2025 by Guillermo Valdés and Francisco González

The final step in AMLO's "Plan C", aimed at guaranteeing the ruling party the 2/3 qualified majority needed to modify the Constitution and thereby avoid the legislative or judicial branch's nullifying the 4T’s policies, is about to be concretized in the form of the Electoral Reform. On August 3 President Sheinbaum announced that an Electoral Reform bill would be sent to Congress during its upcoming period of sessions. To draft such a bill, she announced the formation of a Presidential Commission for Electoral Reform headed by Pablo Gomez and comprised of key government figures, including Minister of the Interior Rosa Icela Rodriguez. While precise details on its content were not forthcoming, the proposal will seek to reduce the price tag of democracy, largely by reducing public financing of political parties and eliminating or modifying proportional representation slots in Congress. However, unlike AMLO, Sheinbaum does not seek to affect the National Electoral Institute’s (INE) autonomy, although reducing its budget remains a likely option.

The Commission will seek a dialogue with other forces, and some of its tasks are to draw up a survey to gauge the population’s opinion on the main points of the reform. Sheinbaum emphasized that the final proposal would be based on “what the people want”, as reflected in the opinion poll. The proposal is to be presented on September 30 and presumably approved in Congress in October.

The opposition and former INE chairpersons and board members have raised an alarm over three issues: 1) the diminishing of proportional representation, which was a key democratic advance aimed at ensuring minority representation; 2) the danger of cutting the budget for running elections and election campaigns; 3) that, unlike in the previous 10 electoral reforms, which were drafted as part of a broad consensus with different political forces, the new proposal will come from a commission comprised of government officials. While the reform does not invalidate elections as a mechanism for accessing or remaining in power, it manipulates the factors at play to ensure that Morena will retain the presidency, Congress, governorships, and city and municipal governments for decades to come.

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