Unanimously, the General Council of the National Electoral Institute (INE) approved manage 1,738 million pesos before the Ministry of Finance to reach the necessary budget to organize and carry out the consultation on the revocation of the presidential mandate due to loss of confidence.
The president of the INE, Lorenzo Córdova, said that the resolutions of the Electoral Court of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF) and the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) They were not a “setback” for the institute, since it now has full legal certainty about the path to follow in the revocation of the mandate.
He argued that budget cuts and readjustments are not ideal, since the mandate revocation consultation is placed in a “zone of care, which, although manageable, is by no means desirable.”
However, he indicated that the resolutions of the Tribunal and the Court legally shield the INE because now “nobody in their right mind can say that the INE does not fulfill its task of organizing the revocation of the mandate. (…) The INE is going to comply with democracy”.
Lorenzo Córdova said that with the validation of signatures in support of the revocation consultation, “everything seems to be that the call of this General Council for the revocation of the mandate is imminent, and today with this decision that we are going to take, to say shortly, the revocation of the mandate, it goes ”. He trusted that the authorities of the Ministry of Finance will collaborate with the INE in this process.
The General Council of the INE approved an agreement by which its Executive Secretariat was instructed to manage with the Ministry of Finance additional resources for the mandate revocation consultation for an amount of 1,738.94 million pesos, and for said agency to respond to promptly in a well-founded and motivated manner, no later than the January 31, 2022.
It should be noted that initially the INE argued that it only had 1,503 million of the 3,830 million pesos that it requires for the organization and holding of the mandate revocation consultation due to loss of confidence in the head of the federal Executive. For this reason, by a majority of six councilors, the INE postponed activities of said consultation, until last December 29, the magistrates of the TEPJF ordered the institute to carry out the necessary budget readjustments, continue with the activities of the mandate revocation consultation and request the Treasury for the missing resources.
For this reason, the INE made an adjustment of 524 million pesos to the cost of revoking the mandate, although this implies that it will not be with the same characteristics and suitability conditions as if it were an electoral process as mandated by law in the matter. However, the national electoral body clarified that this does not put the consultation at risk.
“In sum, derived from the institutional effort of the INE, it is necessary that, from the budget assigned by the Chamber of Deputies in the Expenditure Budget 2022, the INE designated 1,503 million pesos approved through budget adjustments for the mandate revocation process; adds 64.46 million of subsequent budget availability and the adjustment in the activities of the revocation of mandate for 524 million pesos; This Institute has managed by itself to reach approximately 2,091.46 million pesos, both in budgetary sufficiency and in cost elimination, of the 3,830.40 million that were requested in the draft budget”, he explained.
The agreement also instructed the different areas of the INE to continue analyzing possible budget adjustments.
Morena’s representative before the INE, Mario Rafael Llergo Latournerie, stated that in his opinion, these adjustments were only made to the administrative units linked to the mandate revocation process, “in a very comfortable and convenient way”, but it does not comply with the mandate of the Court. “The insurance for major medical expenses, the separation insurance, and the real estate infrastructure fund were not touched,” he said.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx