In Sonora, and across Mexico, thousands took to the streets over the weekend to protest an electoral reform backed by the country’s president.

Chanting slogans like “Hands off the National Electoral Institute (INE),” hundreds of marchers walked through downtown Hermosillo Sunday to show their opposition to the reform. Similar protests took place across Mexico, and while estimates varied significantly, thousands marched in Mexico City. Among other things, the reform pushed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador would reduce the number of federal senators and deputies, and put members of the body that controls the National Electoral Institute (INE) to a popular vote.

Nancy Burruel, one of the organizers of the Hermosillo march, said that if the reform is approved, it would give the president “absolute power” over the institute.

López Obrador was dismissive of the protests, saying that not many people participated, and accusing those that did of defending corruption and the privileges they enjoyed under past administrations, criticisms Burruel rejected.

AMLO, as the president is widely known, also lambasted the marches as a “political, public striptease of conservatism,” revealing that many participants weren’t the nonpartisan independents they had claimed to be.

“I am a conservative,” Burruel said in response to AMLO’s comments. “I want to conserve the INE, I want to conserve democracy, I want to conserve the values of the Mexican people, I want to conserve respect for liberty.”