Erika Hernandez/Agencia Reforma
Saturday, January 07, 2023 | 12:43
Mexico City— The process to elect four INE directors is suspended until February, when the Chamber of Deputies modifies the call, as ordered by the Electoral Tribunal.
Parliamentary coordinators affirmed that there is no point in continuing with the appointment of the Technical Evaluation Committee, which will review the profiles of applicants, and the start of the registration of candidates for directors, as planned these days, until they are certain of how the call will be .
The leaders of the benches agreed that the sentence of the Superior Chamber is addressed to the plenary session of the Chamber, not to the Political Coordination Board, and the conditions do not exist to call for an extraordinary period.
“In conclusion: it will be the plenary session of the Chamber that determines (the modifications to the call) once the regular session begins. Meanwhile, all the stages considered are suspended, both those contemplated in the call and the integration process of the Technical Committee.
“As the lawyers say, subjudice, it remains in suspense,” said the coordinator of Morena in the Chamber, Ignacio Mier. He argued that they do have time for the election of the four directors to take place before April 3, since on average the process takes between 42 and 47 days, and when the regular session starts on February 1, they would have 58 days. .
“If the call to elect INE directors is not in force, then what is the point of discussing the Technical Committee, which would not have matter for discussion since the plenary session will have to issue a new call, and while that happens there is no matter for the other discussions.
“Then prudence entered and it is a good agreement. We have time to organize the issue, the last time (in the election of councilors in 2020) it was done with a similar time frame, there is no rush,” said the coordinator of Movimiento Ciudadano, Jorge Alvarez Maynez.
The Electoral Tribunal ordered the Chamber to modify the call launched in December to establish that the Technical Evaluation Committee should not render partial reports to the Board; that it be distinguished in the quintets which one goes for the presidency and which ones for the other vacancies; and that differentiated rules be established for the presidency and for the other vacancies.
In addition to submitting for the consideration of the Plenary, in separate ballots, the presidency and other vacancies; and that gender parity be distinguished in the different quintets.
Mier affirmed that the legal area will provide an analysis of the actions that the Chamber could undertake against the Electoral Tribunal, despite the fact that its sentences are unassailable.
“The Electoral Tribunal carried out actions that constitute a systematic violation of the Constitution and a violation and interference with the Legislative Power. For this reason we are going to initiate the legal path that allows us to set a limit to the Tribunal.
“It could be from indirect protection to constitutional controversy and in the case of finding other types of criminal offenses, by moving away from the obligation of the judges, we could resort to the Judiciary for sanctions of an administrative nature and, where appropriate, , impeachment,” he said.
Given this, Álvarez Máynez clarified that this is at the request of Morena, and there is no unanimity on this.
“That is a situation of Morena and her allies, I do not know if the other parties are willing, but the Citizen Movement in no way. We support the Court and its sentences are unassailable and enjoy the principle of finality, so there is no way to neglect them.
“For us this is part of the President’s regime that wants to be intimidating the Judiciary and the autonomous bodies,” he said.
The vice coordinator of the PRD, Elizabeth Pérez, assured that she will await the diagnosis of the legal area on the actions against the Court, because although its sentences must be complied with, the way in which the sentence was made is incorrect.
“We have to recognize when a Court acts correctly and when it does not. We are in favor of parity, but we note that the sentence as such, in execution, is incorrect,” he said.
The MC coordinator reported that during the Board session it was also made clear that the Chamber does not have the power to reject profiles, as the legal area raised about Sergio López Ayllón, that the academic does not comply with independence, objectivity and impartiality for support the INE, therefore its discussion is also postponed.
