MEXICO CITY—Tens of thousands of people packed the Mexican capital’s main boulevard Sunday to protest President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s proposal to overhaul the country’s electoral authority in the largest demonstration against one of the president’s efforts during his nearly four years in office.
López Obrador sees the institute as beholden to the elite, but critics say his reforms would threaten its independence and make it more political. The initiative includes eliminating state-level electoral offices, cutting public financing of political parties and allowing the public to elect members of the electoral authority rather than the lower chamber of Congress.
“I’m already fed up with Andrés Manuel, with so many lies, so much crime,” said Alejandra Galán, a 45-year-old manager, as she raised a Mexican flag in the middle of the multitude. “He wants to take the [electoral institute] from us so that eventually it’s like Venezuela, Cuba, but we’re not going to let him.”
Fernando Belaunzarán, one of the promoters of the protest, said 200,000 people participated in the march. Authorities did not confirm this figure. López Obrador’s party does not have enough votes to pass the constitutional reform without support from the opposition. Selecting members of the Electoral Court and leadership of the institute by popular vote would give the parties more power to pick candidates. The proposal would also reduce members of the institute’s council from 11 to seven.
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