MEXICALI.- A state lawmaker introduced a bill that, if enacted, would mandate the elimination of public funding for political parties.
Assemblyman Luis Moreno, who also chairs the conservative Social Encounter Party (or PES in Spanish), said political organizations should be financed through donations or contributions from their membership.
The bill would save funds that could get re-appropriated in areas like education, health and public safety.
“The state government always arguments it has no money,” he said. “But there is money and a lot of it is in political party hands.”
Moreno said Mexican Congressmen are already addressing a similar bill at the federal level.
He said it is contradictory that all significant areas in the Mexican government’s budget were reduced for this year compared to 2015, except expenditures for political parties. Instead, he added, funds for political organizations were increased.
Mexican law has included for decades public funds for political parties in order to avoid donations from criminal organizations.
“We have the obligation to address this issue that has turned into a popular claim that demands reduction of public funds to sustain parties,” Moreno said. “It is an insult for millions of Mexicans who suffer poverty.”
According to the lawmaker, who quoted figures from the National Electoral Institute, the Institutional Revolutionary Party got 27 percent of the budget appropriated for political parties, while the National Action Party obtained 23 percent, the Democratic Revolution Party 17 percent, the Green Party 9 percent, the New Alliance Party 7 percent, the Citizens Movement Party 7 percent and his PES, as well as the Morena Movement and Humanist Party only got 1 percent.
In the last five years, national political parties have gotten 16 billion pesos or $888.88 million, he said.
Información RadarBC
