The possibility that the National Electoral Institute (INE) will disappear, to be replaced by a National Institute of Elections and Consultations (INEC), as proposed by the Mexican president, is getting closer, at least that is what the legislators of Morena in the Chamber of Deputies, an instance in which this week the analysis work for an upcoming electoral reform began.
The changes that are proposed are included in 108 initiatives that have been presented in the lower house so far, highlighting the proposal by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, sent to that sovereignty last April, in which the president proposes to reduce the number of deputies from 500 to 300, and reduce from 128 to 96 senators, but making them all multi-member.
The presidential initiative also wants the electoral advisers to be voted by the citizens to be able to occupy their positions; limit the number of regidurías in the City Councils; increase private financing for political parties, and centralize state and municipal elections.
consensus opinion
A group of 21 deputies from all parliamentary groups, including opposition groups, is in charge of preparing “a collegiate opinion” that, it is presumed, will gather all the proposals by consensus.
The goal, according to Ignacio Mier Velazco, coordinator of Morena in the lower house, is that the final opinion be discussed and voted on in plenary next November, although for this the official party must negotiate with the opposition, since the projected changes are of a constitutional nature.
The ideological burden of each political institute “does not prevent us from building for the benefit of the democratic regime of parties, (and) of electoral democracy”, a collegiate reform initiative, Mier Velazco said.
However, to carry out these changes, the vote of two thirds of the legislators is needed, a qualified majority that Morena and its allies, the Green Ecologist and Labor parties, do not have.
Obviously the possibility is open that the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) will once again ally with the ruling party, just as it did last month when presenting an initiative that extended, until 2028, the participation of the Armed Forces in security tasks.
About, Ruben Moreira, parliamentary coordinator of the PRI in the Chamber of Deputies, has assured that his party is not proposing any electoral reform, despite the fact that there are initiatives presented individually by some PRI legislators.
Similarly, Moreira told the press that his legislative group is going “to protect the INE and the Electoral Tribunal in terms of their autonomy,” and was blunt in stating that they do not agree that the councilors of the constitutionally autonomous body be elected. by the citizens.
However, one issue that the PRI is open to analyzing is the inclusion of the second round in the elections, as long as the National Action (PAN) and the Democratic Revolution (PRD) parties agree.
The so-called runoff consists of carrying out, for example, a second round in the presidential elections, if in the first no candidate obtains more than 50% of the votes. With this, the dispersion of the vote is avoided, since in the second election only the two candidates who have obtained the most votes in the first exercise participate, which gives greater legitimacy to the final winner.
Undermine the electoral referee
On your side, George Romero Herrera, coordinator of the PAN deputies, considers that an electoral reform with the consensus of all the political forces in Congress is possible, but that does not mean that the opposition is going to sit down to analyze and discuss the president’s initiative, because it contains issues with which that National Action is “categorically and firmly against”.
“We can advance in many things (…), with what we will never agree, and we will not allow, is that they mess with, I insist, and violate the electoral referees” who are the INE and the Electoral Court, Romero pointed out in a radio interview.
What the PAN party does propose in Deputies is the second round in the presidential elections; primary elections in political parties, open to citizens; the annulment of elections if crime is involved in them; and electronic ballot boxes, among other proposals.
For his part, the leader of the PRD, Jesus Zambrano Grijalva coincided with the opinion of the Venice Commission, a consultative body of the Council of Europe, which this week described President López Obrador’s electoral reform initiative as partial, by not providing “sufficient guarantees on the independence and impartiality” of the proposed National Institute of Elections and Consultations.
“We will continue to defend the INE, we will not let its autonomy be destroyed and the law continue to be violated, we will not take a step back, we will not allow regressive actions against democracy,” Zambrano said.
Inequity risks
The electoral reform initiative with which Morena obviously coincides is that of the president, who plans to modify 18 articles of the Constitution. These changes, far from improving our institutions, have the objective of capturing the INE with a view to the 2024 presidential election, in addition to changing our system of democratic representation to create a hegemonic majority in Congress.
Although, in the event that the PRI maintains its opposition position, it is difficult for the proposals of the official party to prosper, the problem is that the necessary adjustments required by our electoral system, especially in those that refer to partisan overrepresentation in the lower house.
The same happens with the powers of the INE and the Electoral Court in terms of sanctions, which must be reinforced, since in the current federal administration there have been constant contempt of various public officials who, violating the law, promote themselves, or manifest political support that -formally- is not allowed neither in the Constitution, nor in our electoral legislation.
In fact, the great challenge for the next presidential elections in 2024, and those that will take place in the State of Mexico in 2023, is to prevent the use of public resources for the benefit of candidates, in addition to the political use of social programs by part of the federal government.
In the same way, unfortunately, the necessary fairness of these contests may be violated if, for example, the president maintains his daily pronouncements against what he calls the “opposition bloc”, epithets that are prohibited by law for all during the electoral period. the functionaries.
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Surya Palacios Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.