Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday that the federal electoral court was lying when it claimed that he coerced the vote in favor of his party during the electoral period and that he violated the principles of “impartiality, neutrality and equity” of the contest.
“These lying, corrupt judges claim that we exerted pressure, that I pressured people to vote in favor of the president-elect (Claudia Sheinbaum). Where is the evidence?” he said during his morning press conference.
The court issued a ruling on Thursday on comments made by López Obrador during the electoral campaign for the governorships of the State of Mexico and Coahuila in 2023 but which referred to the general elections held this year.
According to the court, López Obrador “misused public resources and social programs; coerced citizens’ votes; carried out personalized promotion and disseminated government propaganda during a prohibited period” by claiming that in the general elections last June, it was necessary to obtain a qualified majority in Congress to continue with the reforms proposed by his party, Morena.
The electoral court cannot sanction the head of the executive branch, it can only “declare his responsibility.”
“It’s not that they can’t punish me because it’s an administrative matter,” the president replied. “It’s that they are simply, clearly, lying, they are distorting reality, they have no proof. Surely these judges are from the conservative bloc.”
The president’s comments are the latest attack on judges he has been lashing out at for years.
Among the statements that the court used to argue its decision is one that López Obrador made on May 11, 2023, when he stated that, the following year, “we had to vote not only for the presidential candidate, we had to vote for the legislators, for the candidates for deputies and senators, so that the transformation has a qualified majority.”
“Do you want to continue pensions for senior citizens? You already know who you are going to vote for,” he said then.
Opposition parties have accused the president of using his daily press conferences to campaign for pro-government candidates in various races and attack his opponents.
The accusations intensified during the last electoral process in which the presidential candidate of the opposition coalition Xóchitl Gálvez, who lost the election by an overwhelming majority against the official candidate Sheinbaum, denounced that there was a “state campaign” in favor of Morena and Sheinbaum.
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