[JURIST] President-elect of Mexico Enrique Pena Nieto [campaign website, in Spanish] announced Monday that he is proposing constitutional reforms that will increase government transparency. The proposed reforms [AP report] will mark the first legislation that Mexico’s new president has announced since winning the election. The Institutional Revolutionary Party [party website, in Spanish], Pena Nieto’s party, will now return to power after 12 years. In an attempt to crack down on corruption, Nieto also plans to propose a national anti-corruption commission in the next few weeks.
Pena Nieto’s electoral victory was confirmed [JURIST report] in July, and subsequent legal challenges to his victory proved unsuccessful. Last month, Mexico’s Electoral Tribunal upheld [JURIST report] the results after finding that there was no evidence that Pena Nieto violated election regulations. Pena Nieto faced legal challenges [JURIST report] brought by his opponent Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the left wing Democratic Revolution Party. He claimed to have evidence showing that Pena Nieto bought votes by distributing 1.8 million gift cards that amounted to billions of pesos.