Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that a constitutional reform proposal aimed at changing Mexico’s electoral system had failed in Congress, and that her administration would respond with what she called a “Plan B.” The comments came after Sheinbaum’s Morena party suffered its first major legislative setback since she took office in 2024, with lawmakers unable to reach the supermajority needed to pass the measure in the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday evening.
Sheinbaum downplayed the defeat, telling reporters there was still a path forward and warning voters would judge whether politicians from other parties had kept promises to support her government’s agenda. She said she would provide more details about “Plan B” on Monday, while adding that the intent of her plan would remain the same: “to continue reducing privileges.”
The failure in the Chamber of Deputies stemmed from the legislative math inside the ruling coalition. With defections from some members of the smaller allied Green and Workers parties, Morena did not have the supermajority to pass the constitutional reform. In her remarks Thursday, Sheinbaum linked the political fallout to the behavior of those lawmakers, saying voters would evaluate whether they complied with commitments to back her agenda.
A central sticking point in the constitutional proposal involved how Mexico seats in Congress are allocated. The plan would have done away with a system that lets parties fill some seats based on proportional representation tied to their national vote percentage, a mechanism that gives smaller parties representation even when they cannot win individual district races.
The proposal also included provisions aimed at election administration and cost. It sought to reduce the cost of elections by 25%, including funding for the National Electoral Institute and money provided to all parties.
Experts said those changes could put Mexico’s elections at risk and could strengthen the governing party. In comments carried in the reporting, Georgina de la Fuente, a political science professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey University, said that what the vote showed was that small parties were not going to give unconditional support to Morena and were not going to “put their survival at risk.”