The reform of imbalances

There is a fundamental problem with the perception of the Mexican electoral system and this is that, simply despite the ups and downs of governments of one political persuasion, the substance of the system itself has not improved. The poor involvement of citizens reflected in the levels of participation, the quality of representation and the almost zero credibility that weighs on political parties, are issues that have been unsatisfied since the post-revolution. And that is why, it is equally contradictory that, at this time, a reform is being presented in Mexico that is not only electoral, but has a broad political background, and that ironically is repairing those scenarios of abuses from the power that is so repudiated.

The normalized practices rooted in institutions and public money for which the vote was bought, the disguised gifts that have an electoral favor destination and the cynical profit with poverty, at least found a containment dam in the nineties when step to the independence of the electoral arbitrator.

Contradictorily for those who today promote the disappearance of the INE, it was precisely the reforms of those years that allowed the democratic advance that eventually translated into alternation. The reduction of political-electoral promiscuity undoubtedly brought about an order that gave not only lanes, but support and justification to the disappearance of the hegemonic party and granted the arrival to power of new signs and expressions of politics. But today, under cover of the narrative of the abuses and waste of the past, it is intended to go back dangerously towards the thickening of a responsibility of the state that is surely anachronistic.

For this reason, the criterion of reducing what currently exists to nullity, based on arguments of austerity in government spending, is insufficient. Furthermore, the transition to a state body in charge of organizing elections and consultations would very probably come to represent a non-functional strategy that would lead to a series of expenses that have not yet been quantified with certainty.

The reformist spirit in favor of functionality and justice in spending is a tricky argument that hides true control ambitions. We are facing a reform that started in social resentment, has equally reached a magnitude that would no longer be possible to conceive without facing a full relaunch of the Mexican constitutional pact. This is an attempt that has not been dimensioned around the imbalances it would cause in the legislative and judicial powers. If a system of legal framework balances is not neatly weaved, the dysfunctionality of the system will be visible in a few years and the consequence will inevitably be an increase in disenchantment and mistrust that is now being tried to abate.

Twitter: @gdeloya