Mexico City, Mexico - Congress rejected Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's proposed electoral reforms, inflicting her first legislative defeat since she took power in 2024.

The proposal sought to reduce government financing for political parties and change the way they pick candidates for Congress so that these would only be elected directly, rather than from lists drawn up by the parties.

The leftist Sheinbaum presented the bill a week ago despite opposition from her own congressional allies, who considered the bill unfair to small parties.

In a country where most voters consider political parties to be corrupt and disconnected from the concerns of the population, the proposal received widespread popular support, according to opinion polls.

A study published last Friday by the Mexican edition of El Pais found an 80% acceptance rate for the proposal that all congressional deputies be elected by direct vote and the reduction of public funds for political parties.

"Why do the parties need money? When elections happen they go out and buy people. I've seen it myself," Silvia Zapata, a 69-year-old street merchant and supporter of the President's Morena party, told AFP.

The legislation, however, needed to garner a two-thirds majority of the Chamber of Deputies – at least 330 votes out of 494 legislators present. It obtained 259 in favor, 234 votes against, and one abstention.

Opponents like the conservative National Political Action party and allies like the Labor Party had denounced the reform as damaging to democracy and political pluralism.