Mexico: Morena Party Opposes Censorship Against AMLO

The National Renovation Movement (MORENA) party will challenge a decision by the National Electoral Institute (INE) which prohibited Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) from expressing judgments on the June federal elections during his morning press conferences. 

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"It is an excess against freedom of expression and his right to give his opinion on issues of national importance," MORENA lawmaker Alejandro Viedma said. 

On Friday, the INE approved a directive that prohibits all officials to issue statements that could interfere in the elections.

AMLO warned that the INE directive seeks to prohibit his morning conferences in which he has criticized the political and social situation and revealed corruption acts carried out by previous administrations.

"The impartiality, which must be free of prejudice and abstain from subjective considerations, turns INE electoral counselors into Manicheans by dividing ideas and parties between good and bad", MORENA coordinator Ignacio Mier said.

INE President Lorenzo Cordova highlighted that these regulations have been previously applied in four federal electoral processes.

He also considered that AMLO morning briefs promote government achievements and constitute propaganda whose dissemination is prohibited. 

Electoral campaigns will be permitted from April to June and it is expected that 92.4 million citizens cast their votes on June 6, when 500 federal officials, 20,868 local officials, and 15 governorships will be elected.