18 electoral initiatives await analysis
To date, 18 constitutional reform initiatives related to electoral matters are being considered in the Congress of the Union, promoted by legislators from Morena, the PAN, the PRI, and the MC. None of them propose reducing the prerogatives of political parties, the budget of the National Electoral Institute (INE), or electing electoral councilors by popular vote. They also propose reducing or eliminating the number of federal deputies and senators with proportional representation or proportional representation, as President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has already announced she will propose to the Legislature next September.
Of the total number of constitutional electoral reform initiatives presented since the start of the 66th Legislature on September 1 of last year, six are in Senate committees (two from Morena, three from the PAN, and one from MC) and 12 are in the Chamber of Deputies (six from Morena, three from the PAN, one from the PRI, and two from MC), all pending a ruling.
On behalf of the PAN parliamentary group in the Upper House, Ricardo Anaya, its coordinator, proposed last March to reform articles 52, 53, 54, 56, and 109, section III, of the Constitution, in order to modify the election process for federal deputies and senators with proportional representation and avoid overrepresentation.
The PAN senator's proposal is that political parties have pure political representation in the Legislative Branch based on the votes they received in the federal elections.
Last October, federal representative Sylvana Beltrones Sánchez (PRI) proposed amending articles 56 and 71 of the Constitution to establish that of the 32 Senate seats assigned by the principle of proportional representation, one would go to the candidate who came in second in the corresponding election.
In addition, it specifies that if said candidate rejects the position of senator, resigns at any time, or requests indefinite leave, the next candidate on the multi-member list will assume office, and that the candidate who holds the senate seat assigned to the second-place senator may submit an initiative with preferential processing or indicate a previously submitted initiative pending a decision.
For MC, Representative Paola Longoria presented an initiative last November to reform Articles 54 and 56 of the Constitution to establish that the distribution of federal deputies and multi-member senators not only includes political parties, but also alliances and coalitions.
In September 2024, Morena Senator Reyna Ascencio proposed reforming the second paragraph of Section VII of Article 38 and the first paragraph of Section I of Article 41 of the Constitution to sanction the nomination of candidates who pretend to be people belonging to indigenous or Afro-Mexican communities with disabilities or sexual diversity.
Eleconomista
