Reform would impact the independence of the electoral authority


Good and bad points were observed by the former president of the IFE, Luis Carlos Ugalde, and the former counselor of the INE, Marco Antonio Baños, in the constitutional reform initiative in electoral matters presented by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Both considered the appointment by vote of magistrates and councilors that he proposes to be worrying, because it would break with the independence of the electoral arbitrator.

The consultant Luis Carlos Ugalde said that the presidential initiative has positive things such as reducing the number of local councilors and deputies based on population criteria; electronic voting; the elimination of the Local Public Electoral Organisms (Oples) and the state Electoral Tribunals.

However, he highlighted as negative the appointment of councilors and magistrates by popular vote. “That is a totally politicizing and destructive measure of the electoral function. López Obrador says that what he wants is for the advisers to stop being at the order of the parties, and what he does is bring them to their knees in front of the parties because of the way they would be selected, for leading them to engage in campaign politics, because they will have to get money to win elections. That’s the worst thing about the proposal.”

“The other thing that seems negative to me is to eliminate party financing. Yes it can be done, but it seems to me that it has to be done gradually, and not eliminated completely, ”she maintained.

He falsely stated that the initiative seeks to eliminate plurinominal legislators; “what is proposed is the opposite: to eliminate the majority deputies and replace them with plurinominals in their entirety; the 300 deputies would be elected by proportional representation through state lists. This would end up reducing the representativeness of the parties, and would end up favoring the majority party”, he warned.

Ugalde stated that in the political context in which the initiative is presented, it makes it “completely unfeasible”, because President López Obrador and Morena are going to seek to negotiate with opposition legislators whom they have described as traitors to the Homeland. “In the end, this will not prosper and the only thing that will serve is the policy of attack, exorcism and annihilation of the adversary,” he stated.

Workload

Former counselor Marco Antonio Baños estimated that it is an initiative that “aims to centralize all elections in a new electoral institution,” for which there would be no savings of 24,000 million pesos, as argued by the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López.

He considered it unfeasible for a single authority to be responsible for organizing all the elections in the country, due to the conflict that this would imply. He indicated that the reduction to seven councilors could generate an overload of work for them.

“The election by vote that is wanted of the directors does not guarantee their independence, because the president is talking about 20 proposals that he would make, 20 from Congress, where the majorities are from Morena, so between the President and Congress they have two thirds. parts of the proposals and another 20 of the Court that who knows what kind of origin they would have, “he said.

They call for prudence

Both Luis Carlos Ugalde and Marco Antonio Baños agreed that the current directors of the INE and magistrates of the Electoral Court of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF), should not fall into a campaign for or against the president’s electoral initiative, but only provide the technical information that is required.

“The councilors and magistrates must provide the information that is requested of them on technical diagnoses, on the viability of the proposals, the effects on the electoral system. The authority must be neutral there, and present all the information that is needed for the deliberations, but it does not seem to me that the electoral authority, despite everything that has happened, should go out and make a crusade against the reform, the positions in favor and against they have to be of the analysts and of the political parties”, exposed Marco Antonio Baños.

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