This Monday, November 20, the pre-campaigns for the presidency of the Republic, senators and federal deputies formally begin, which must conclude on January 18, despite the fact that the majority of political parties in Mexico, with the exception of Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), in fact they anticipated the 2024 electoral process.
Although five months have passed since Morena began its proselytizing activities, the opposition parties that make up the so-called Broad Front for Mexico, Electoral legislation establishes that it is from the official start of the pre-campaigns that the INE must observe the conduct of the pre-candidates with greater rigor.
The latter includes, of course, the control of the resources used by the candidates and their parties to promote themselves, which have a limit already set by the National Electoral Institute (INE): The pre-campaign spending limit for the presidency of the Republic is 85 million 926,665 pesos.
This amount is equivalent to 20% of the resources that were established in the previous presidential campaign, in accordance with article 229 of the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures (LGIPE). On that occasion, when the current president was elected Andrés Manuel López Obrador, The campaign limit for all candidates for the federal Executive was 429 million 633,325 pesos.
The INE also established, for pre-candidates for relative majority deputies, a pre-campaign limit of 329,638 pesos, while the limit for those who aspire to be senators is 20% of the limits established in the 2018 Senate campaigns, whose amounts vary depending on the number of districts in each entity.
Reporting and monitoring
Along with the spending limit for pre-campaigns, the electoral authority also determined the requirements that each pre-candidate must meet when submitting their income and expense report.
In this it is highlighted that the report of income and expenditures must be submitted by the politician aspiring to his party, “no later than seven days following the internal election day or celebration of the assembly,” adds article 229 of the LGIPE.
As has already happened in other elections, The public resources spent by the pre-candidates will be reviewed in real time, since the INE’s oversight includes timely monitoring of electoral propaganda, public events carried out by pre-candidates, their announcements at the designated time on radio and television, and advertising broadcast through social networks.
Failure to adequately report pre-campaign expenditures, or omitting the respective report, as well as exceeding spending limits, is sanctioned depending on the severity of the legal transgression, for which a public reprimand may be applied; and a fine of up to five thousand times the Measurement and Update Unit (518,700 PESOS).
In the most serious cases the sanction is “the loss of the right of the offending pre-candidate to be registered as a candidate”, according to articles 446 and 456, paragraph c), of the LGIPE.
As will be remembered, in April 2021, Félix Salgado Macedonio, then a licensed senator, who aspired to be a candidate for governor of the state of Guerrero, lost his right to be registered as such, since he failed to present his pre-campaign expense report, violating – in a willful manner – the electoral legislation, and the principle of accountability.
Candidates with the most promotion
Although we already know that Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez They are the presidential candidates de facto of Morena and the Frente Amplio por México, in legal terms they are considered pre-candidates, so they will be able to use the public resources that the INE gives to the parties for pre-campaign activities.
That is to say, they will continue touring the country, as they have done for five months, developing acts of proselytism with which they will simulate a pre-campaign, when in reality it is only the continuation of their advanced campaigns.
By contrast, Citizen Movement, which did respect the times established in the law, It will be the only party that will -effectively- make a pre-campaign. For this, eight people registered to be pre-candidates for the presidency, among them the governor of Nuevo León with a license, Samuel Garcia, and the senator Indira Kempis.
However, the National Commission of Conventions and Internal Processes of that party determined that seven of those requests were inadmissible, so the only presidential candidate who begins his activities as such on behalf of MC It’s Samuel Garcia.
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Surya Palacios Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal and human rights analysis. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.