Seven councilors of the National Electoral Institute (INE) fired their colleagues Lorenzo Córdova Vianello in their last session of the General Council; Ciro Murayama Rendon; José Roberto Ruiz Saldaña and Adriana Favela Herrera, who will conclude their term on April 3.
“Five builders of democracy soon leave this table; I hope this is nothing more than a see you later, we are democrats and we are on the road, we will meet again. It is not a minor task, it is not a minor challenge for the five people who will occupy those spaces in the coming days”, said the councilor Uuc-kib Espadas Ancona with a broken voice.
Counselor Carla Humphrey described the four counselors who will end their term as permanent watchdogs of Mexican democracy.
“9 years ago they arrived at the institution with the task of launching a huge constitutional and legal reform of 2014 with more than 70 new attributions for the institution, which managed to land regulations and operations successfully in a very short time. This was reflected in the three federal electoral processes in which they participated; 1,500 renewals of federal deputies, 129 senators, a change of the head of the Executive Power. Likewise, they collaborated in the renewal of the head of 42 federal entities, ”he said.
“This table will miss the eloquence, sagacity and versatility of their interventions, they leave a mark of the years they have spent professionalizing, training and being permanent watchdogs of Mexican democracy. The INE has been built with the independence, impartiality and transparency of each and every one of the people who make up this institute”, he said.
The counselor Dania Ravel recalled that they were the first counselors appointed with the reform that created the INE in 2014; “You are leaving, but your legacy will remain at INE,” she told them.
When presiding over his last session of the General Council, the director Lorenzo Córdova Vianello presented the Report on the Institutional Management Report 2014-2023.
In turn, the Executive Secretary, Edmundo Jacobo, recalled that he submitted his resignation as of April 3, with the purpose of preventing the polarization and attacks that he has faced from the government from affecting the institutionality of the position and the INE.
“The notoriety that I have acquired without looking for it, constitutes an impediment, from my point of view, to continue carrying out with discretion and efficiency the activities of the Executive Secretariat; For this reason, I am convinced that with the ethics of responsibility it is time to retire, ”he reiterated.
I leave with the reproach of the government: Murayama
Speaking for the last time in the INE General Council, the councilor Ciro Murayama told the remaining councilors, and the four new ones that will be appointed, that their mission is to comply with the Constitution.
“I am leaving, I know, with the acid reproach of the government, but with the warm affection of the workers. Otherwise, looking good with power, and bad with those who make the elections with professionalism, would have been a dishonor for me.
“The councilors who remain know their mission: to comply with the Constitution, partiality will not be the sum of partialities. (…) Lorenzo Córdova, co-worker, friend of life, comrade of the cause, mission accomplished, we return to our academic home”, said Murayama, who together with Lorenzo Córdova will return as UNAM academics.
For her part, Córdova Vianello highlighted that since the 2014 reform that replaced the IFE with the INE, the electoral body had 75 new functions, and has organized 331 electoral processes, including federal and local, ordinary and extraordinary elections and mechanisms of direct democracy. “And in none, in none of those processes, has there been a post-electoral conflict,” he stressed.
The counselor, who has faced severe criticism from the federal government for his rejection of the electoral “Plan B”, insisted that this reform puts at risk the institutional capacities on which the conditions of certainty and legality of the elections in our country depend.
He urged the councilors who remain at the INE to “continue strengthening and defending a key institution for the existence, guarantee, safeguarding and recreation of our democracy”, for which -he said- “the Mexican society, in its Diversity and plurality, which has been the true builder of democracy in the country, is and will always be with you”. Finally, Lorenzo Córdova said goodbye: “Long live the INE and democracy!”
brunette leaves session
The substitute representative of Morena, Euríspides Flores, and the federal deputy of that party, Julieta Ramírez, attacked the councilors Ciro Murayama and Lorenzo Córdova for their legal defense of the INE.
Even, in a mocking tone, Euríspides Flores criticized the dismissal of the four directors who will conclude their term on April 3.
“Well, let’s say the people closest to the councilors of this General Council are gathered here, they are in a kind of farewell party for the President Councilor and the other councilors who are leaving the General Council. We have also seen the dramatic scene that the Executive Secretary has just staged, even reaching tears,” said Flores, who later left the session room.
PAN, PRI, PRD recognize outgoing councilors
The representatives of the PRI, Gerardo Triana Cervantes; from the PAN, Víctor Hugo Sondón Saavedra; from the PRD, Ángel Ávila, and from MC, Juan Miguel Castro Rendón, recognized the four outgoing counselors.
“I also want to publicly acknowledge the leadership of President Lorenzo Córdova. With his passage in this Institution marks a before and after. His defense of the autonomy of the institution will be permanently remembered, ”said PAN member Víctor Hugo Sondón.
