Mexico's Senate approves a shortened version of Sheinbaum's electoral reform
The initiative, baptized as "plan B," is a new version of the one she presented to Congress at the beginning of March, which ended up being shelved because her allies, the Labor Party (PT) and the 'greens' (PVEM) denied her their vote.
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum (File).
(AFP) Mexico's Senate on Wednesday approved a scaled-down version of the electoral reform of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who is again facing difficulties in gaining full support from her allies for her political agenda.
The initiative, dubbed "plan B," is a new version of the one she presented to Congress in early March, which was ultimately shelved after her allies—the Labor Party (PT) and the greens (PVEM)—denied her their vote.
Reform to the Magna Carta
That version sought to reduce the budget of the parties and take away their power to handpick their parliamentary candidates, which required amending the Constitution.
Without the PT and the PVEM, Sheinbaum could not gather the qualified majority of two thirds of the total number of congressmen necessary to reform the Magna Carta.
The "plan B" abandoned the pretension of reducing the power of the parties over their candidates and focused on cutting the substantial public resources they receive.
With this adjustment, the allies of Morena, Sheinbaum's party, agreed to support it: 87 of the 128 senators voted in favor and sent the bill to the Chamber of Deputies for ratification.
However, the PT conditioned its support on removing from "plan B" the proposal to extend the period during which citizens can request a referendum to revoke the presidential mandate, a mechanism introduced by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024).
Political maneuver or modification?
Analysts and opposition figures warned that behind this modification lay a political maneuver: if the deadline was extended, a potential recall referendum against Sheinbaum could coincide with the 2027 legislative elections, which would allow the president to join the proselytizing campaign.
The approved reform reduces the spending of the political system through limits to the remuneration of party leaders and electoral officials, as well as decreases in the size of the representation bureaucracy.
It also establishes a more rigorous fiscalization of the origin of resources in political campaigns, through agreements with the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance to investigate suspicious contributions.
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