Cordova and Murayama launch a guide to defending democracy

Just two months later Lorenzo Cordova and Ciro Murayama are concluding their term as directors of the National Electoral Institute (INE), on April 3, both Will release a book which they promote as a “Guide for Defending Democracy”.

Titled work Don’t touch democracy And edited by Planeta, it will begin distribution in bookstores this month, as the House of Representatives prepares to elect the people who will replace Córdova — the chairwoman of the NIS board — Murayama and two other election advisers: Adriana Favela and Jose Roberto Ruiz.

The 240-page book features on its cover a photo of Paseo de la Reforma during a rally on Sunday, November 13, in defense of the National Institute of Statistics, called by civic organizations and opposition parties to express their rejection of constitutional reform in the country. The electoral issue promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his Morena party.

Read: “INE is not impressed!”: They are marching in CDMX and other cities against AMLO electoral reform

In the end, this constitutional reform initiative did not move forward in Congress, so López Obrador and Morena filed Plan B with the legal changes they were able to agree to. This package of amendments does not make the National Electoral Institute disappear, but it reduces its structure and involves other amendments that, according to current advisors, endanger the organization of elections in the country.

In this context, Cordova and Murayama – consultants to the National Institute of Statistics since April 4, 2014 – state that their book is “a tool for citizens to know and historically defend their electoral rights”.

“Without INE there is no democracy, without democracy there is no freedom,” the advertisements broadcast by “Editorial Planeta” add.

phrase from Joseph Waldenbergthe former president of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE, the predecessor of the National Institute of Elections), to whom Cordova and Murayama were advisors.

Moreover, the book’s release is shaping up to be another episode of confrontation between the government of López Obrador and Morena and their allies, who have repeatedly accused Córdova and Murayama of favoring the opposition parties PAN, PRI and PRD, As well as allowing “electoral fraud” And belonging to the elite of public servants who receive high salaries.

Morena lawmakers have sought to promote a political trial against both chancellors, an intention that has not yet advanced in Congress.

Meanwhile, Cordova, Murayama and other NIE advisers point out that the legal changes promoted by the president and his party do not start from a diagnosis and will only endanger a properly functioning electoral system.