A politicized electoral body influenced by power is what the reform initiative of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador proposes, with which the National Electoral Institute (INE) would disappear to be replaced by an Institute of Elections and Consultations (INEC), whose directors they would be chosen with the vote of the citizens, but based on the proposals of the Executive Power, the Chambers of Congress and the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.
Currently, the INE General Council is made up of 11 councilors who are elected -for nine years- with the vote of two thirds of the members present of the Chamber of Deputies.
The proposals are voted on in that sovereignty after it issues a public call in which any citizen can register, although after that a technical evaluation committee examines the applicants.
Those registered must meet certain constitutional and legal requirements, and demonstrate their suitability to hold the position of INE director, while the Technical Evaluation Committee is in charge of selecting the best evaluated to submit the proposals that are then voted on in the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies.
In this way, in accordance with article 41 of the Constitution, it is a question of guaranteeing that the councilors are knowledgeable citizens of the electoral legislation, and that they also have a professional profile in accordance with the issues that they will see during their administration.
On the other hand, President López Obrador’s electoral reform initiative proposes the disappearance of the INE to replace it with a National Institute of Elections and Consultations (INEC), made up of only 7 councilors (and not 11 as now), who will remain in office for six years. , and that they will be elected “directly and secretly by the citizens.”
The main problem posed by López Obrador’s initiative is that aspiring electoral advisers will no longer be able to register through an open calland they will not be evaluated on their professionalism and suitability by a technical Committee, since Candidates for directors will be proposed by bodies that are eminently political, except for the Supreme Court.
Each one of the Powers of the Union will nominate twenty people equally, details the proposal: The federal Executive Power, through the president, will propose 20 candidates to be INEC advisers, the Chamber of Deputies will propose 10, and the Senate will do the same; while the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation must also propose 20 candidates.
The politicization that is proposed for the councilors is obvious, since at least 40 of those 60 applicants, when proposed by the president and by the two Chambers of Congress, will obviously respond to the interests of the presidential power and the dominant party in the Legislative Power .
campaigns and parties
If the president’s electoral reform is approved, in addition to the fact that they will be candidates proposed based on the preferences and sympathies of the president, and of the majority of Morena in Congress, the 60 candidates for INEC councilors will have to campaign to achieve the vote of the citizens, opening the door for the intervention of political parties.
No citizen – by himself – can launch a massive campaign to be known throughout the country without using party structures, or without spending large amounts of money.
Therefore, if 40 candidates for INEC councilors will be chosen by López Obrador and by Morena legislators in Congress to campaign, it is not difficult to assume that they will also have the support of the official party. With this the citizen character of the electoral advisers would disappear, favoring political profiles, instead of technical and professional qualities.
Similarly, the campaigns of aspiring INEC directors would make them in candidates more concerned with being worthy of the voters’ sympathyto the detriment of the preparation in electoral matters that this type of officials must possess.
It is true that today, when the Chamber of Deputies elects the INE advisers, the parties represented in that sovereignty exert significant influence on the candidates, but these are -before being voted for by the legislators- citizens who had to submit to to a series of evaluations that qualify them as suitable for their position.
In contrast, what President López Obrador is proposing is that the citizens vote for the councilors from candidacies that he and his party will choose in athus canceling the enormous effort that as a society we have made, for at least 26 years, to have electoral institutions that do not respond to presidential power.
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surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.