Sheinbaum and electoral reform: A masterful “almost, but not yet”
In a turn that no one saw coming (or perhaps everyone), President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has announced with the solemnity of someone discovering the fire that the first review of the famous electoral reform has already taken place. Best of all: he clarified, in case someone was already preparing the rockets, that the proposal “is not finished.” Wow, what a relief. We had worried thinking that in a burst of unusual efficiency, everything was already ready, packaged and tied.
“No, the reform is not ready yet,” Sheinbaum said in his now traditional morning conference from the National Palace, probably waiting for the journalists to put away their pens and stop asking uncomfortable questions. But, surprise, there is progress. It turns out that, according to the forums organized by the Presidential Commission for Electoral Reform (the one chaired by Pablo Gómez), the people, that abstract entity that everyone cites, has spoken. And his message is deep and complex: he wants resources to be reduced. Yes, less money for the democratic party. Who would have thought.
The pearls of consensus: Less money and… how many deputies were there?
The president, acting as an interpreter of the popular will, listed the major agreements. “Several approaches coincide in the forums; one, reduce the budget amounts for the political parties and for the elections,” he said. An idea as revolutionary as suggesting that water is wet, but in the circus of Mexican politics it sounds like high-caliber heresy. “People want them to be reduced,” he insisted. Of course, because citizens are fascinated by seeing how public resources finance campaigns longer than a 90s soap opera.
But the jewel in the crown is the second point of agreement. “The other is to reduce the number of deputies,” Sheinbaum announced, and then added the fine print: “but it is not clear up to what number and the composition.” Marvelous. Everyone wants fewer legislators, but no one agrees on how many fewer, how to elect them or, and this is the funniest thing, how to deal with the thorny issue of multi-member deputies. “People don’t agree,” he confessed. A charming euphemism to describe a system that seems to many like an invitational quota for those who lost elections. “In short, there are still some issues to debate,” concluded the head of the federal Executive, in the understatement of the year.
One can imagine the forums: from the purist who demands only 300 deputies per majority, to those who defend the representation of minorities (a cause with which Sheinbaum says he agrees). The real problem, according to her, is “how the number is given and to what extent.” That is, all the unimportant details. After the visit of Pablo Gómez to the National Palace, the plan is to meet with the parliamentary coordinators next Monday. Surely a meeting where all points will be clarified in 20 minutes and everyone will leave smiling and in total agreement. Or not.
In summary, the constitutional reform in electoral matters advances at that bureaucratic pace so loved by all: one step forward, a clarification that contradicts it, and a sea of doubts about the key points. There is talk of cutting public financing to parties and a reconfiguration of Congress, but the details are more diffuse than the promise of a politician in the campaign. It’s like starting to build a house discussing whether it should be two or three stories, but without having a plan, foundations, or land. What could go wrong?
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