With good reason, those of us who believe in democracy and the rule of law are alarmed by what is looming towards the 2024 elections.
I will not return to the repeated government attempts to weaken the INE through budget strangulation and the presidential crusade to discredit it.
I point out that with the new electoral laws —the so-called plan B— they want to inflict the greatest possible legislative damage on the INE and the Electoral Tribunal beyond the alleged and failed constitutional reform. I point out above all that in the meantime going back and forth from the Chamber of Deputies to the Senate of Plan B, perhaps the reader missed the approval of at least two reforms that give a wide advantage to the caps or pre-pre-pre-candidates of the party in government: the general laws of Social Communication of Administrative Responsibilities.
These new laws give free rein to “public entities” —that is, all members of the federal and state public administrations— to carry out electoral propaganda and promote themselves.
Of course they don’t call it electoral propaganda, but rather “social communication campaigns” or “government propaganda”, but we all know that modifying these laws means eliminating what Morena, when he was in the opposition, considered unfair competition to stay in power.
What has been legalized is that caps They can walk through any public square anywhere and for any reason to boast, “according to their data”, the government achievements without being subject to sanctions due to administrative or political responsibilities. To show a button: beyond the tragic, new and umpteenth “incident” in the Metro, sheinbaum giving a conference in Morelia on successful government policies to raise their recognition and popularity. Frankly, one has the right to wonder if she is the head of Government of the CDMX or has already delegated that function to campaign.
The caps, encouraged and endorsed by the President, have been promoting themselves as presidential hopefuls since last year. Neither one nor the other cared about the illegality, but now they can do it legally, hiding behind the right to freedom of expression and “the right of citizens to information about the actions and accountability of the public entities”. They may do so by any means because government propaganda was redefined as the “set of writings, publications, images, recordings and projections disseminated at the expense of the public budget,… or through the use of official times, by a public entity, with the purpose of to disseminate the work, actions or achievements related to its purposes”. Several parties have already announced their intention to file before the Court appeals of unconstitutionality for the changes to these two laws. How will things be that one corcholata (ebrard) has already denounced someone else’s team (sheinbaum) before the FGR for electoral crimes; in particular due to the diversion of public resources and possible coercion!
The complete electoral reform, known as plan B —the one that Ernesto Nunez said it’s about butcher to the INE—, could not conclude its legislative process, but it will most likely be approved as soon as the legislative period begins in February. This, despite the fact that the coordinator of the morenistas in the Senate has revealed in a document that this set of laws had at least 21 unconstitutional defects.
If there is consistency, we would have not only the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, but also the leader of the Morenista parliamentary faction in the Senate, filing one or more appeals before the Court.
The changes to the political communication model, the use of public resources for government propaganda with evidently partisan intentions and, if approved, the laws that dismantle the INE, will cause an avalanche of unconstitutionality actions and protections before the Court.
This should decide fairly quickly on the constitutionality of the laws already approved and those that are likely to be approved. As long as you don’t, the caps and the ruling party will continue to have huge electoral advantages.
For this reason alone, the Court should leave behind the habit of postponing its decisions for months and years on fundamental issues for the governability of the country. But if this were not reason enough, it should be noted that, in electoral matters, there is one more limit: electoral laws must be published 90 days before the electoral period begins (September 2023). This means that the electoral legal framework must be defined no later than May 31. I am sure that, in these new times, the Court, as a collegiate body, will assume its great responsibility.
