The political campaigns that the candidates for Morena’s presidential candidacy will carry out throughout the country, planned by that party to take place from June 19 to August 27, are an open violation of the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures (LGIPE), rule that currently provides that pre-candidates can only start their promotion until the third week of November 2023.
Thus, the rules and schedule that were approved on Sunday by the Morenista National Council imply that those who claim to be the standard-bearers to succeed President Andrés Manuel López Obrador remain illegal for at least five months, under the euphemism that on September 6 in that political institute a presidential candidate will not be elected, but the “Coordinator for the Defense of Transformation.”
The problem is not the position, denomination or title that will be given to the winner of the survey that will be carried out by the official party, but rather the activities that the pre-candidates will be carrying out from next week.
“The work tours around the country to report on the achievements of the (self-proclaimed) 4th transformation and promote democracy” are nothing more than political pre-campaigns, which are currently prohibited by our legislation.
They fail until their reform
To determine how many exact months the presidential candidates of Morena are anticipating, it is necessary to resort to the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures prior to the Plan B election of the president, since the changes that were introduced to this legislation, with the majority vote of the legislators related to the federal government, have been suspended by the Supreme Court since March 24.
Therefore, considering subparagraph a) of numeral 2 of article 226 of the LGIPE, the pre-campaigns must “begin in the third week of November of the year prior to the year of the election”, during the federal electoral processes in which the holder of the federal Executive Branch and the two Chambers of Congress.
If next Monday, June 19 is the starting point of the promotion that they will do Marcelo Ebrard, Claudia Sheinbaum, Adán Augusto López and Ricardo Monreal, to which the PT Gerardo Fernández Noroña and Manuel Velasco, from the Green Party, will be added, there will be 148 calendar days of anticipated pre-campaigns, taking into account that the third week of November begins on Monday the 13th of that month.
However, the reform to the electoral legislation promoted by President López Obrador, and approved by the majority of Morena in Congress, which is suspended, established in the same article 226 of the LGIPE that “the pre-campaigns will begin in the third week of December of the year prior to the election.
That is, the suspended Plan B The president’s election further shortened the selection of presidential candidates in all political parties, which would give us 183 days in advance of the candidates from Morena, a party that is not even taking into account the reform that its legislators endorsedalthough this cannot be applied given the precautionary measure imposed by the Court.
Acts that are sanctioned
Electoral legislation in Mexico establishes that electoral pre-campaigns cannot last more than 60 days, Therefore, any politician who carries out proselytizing activities before the dates established by the regulations falls within the cases that are sanctioned as early pre-campaign and/or campaign acts.
These behaviors constitute a violation of the law because Those who carry them out violate the equity that must exist in all electoral processes. Equity is a constitutional principle that allows all political forces to compete on equal terms.
When someone advances doing political proselytism to aspire to a position of popular election, the fairness of the elections disappears, which also violates the legal security of the contest, reducing the chances of victory of other candidates, who -by complying with the law- they will compete at a disadvantage with respect to those who transgress it.
For this reason these acts are sanctioned, depending on the seriousness of the infraction, with a public reprimand to the pre-candidate or candidate; with a fine of up to five thousand days (518,700 pesos); and with the loss of the right of the offending pre-candidate to be registered as a candidate, or in its case, if the registration has already been made, with its cancellation, in accordance with article 456 of the current LGIPE.
The bet of Morena and her pre-candidates for the presidency is that the Court does not declare unconstitutional the reform that was made with the Plan B to the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures, which repealed the sanction that implied the loss of the candidacy for early campaign acts.
However, this reform cannot be applied today, we reiterate, because it is suspended by the country’s highest court.
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This means that, considering the time, manner and place of the electoral promotion activities of the so-called presidential “corcholatas”, the proselytism that they will develop in the coming months is located in the assumptions sanctioned by the law currently in force, not the reformed one, but the one that was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on May 14, 2014, and that punishes the offending applicant with the loss of the candidacy.
Although in factual terms, given the political context of polarization that the country is experiencingit is difficult for the INE and the Electoral Tribunal to deny the registration of the presidential candidate of Morenafrom his anticipated campaign actions, which is actually unfortunate It is the inequality that will be presented in the next general elections of 2024, sponsored by the current party in power, an institute that, together with its pre-candidates, have no qualms about violating the law.
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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.