INE approves “even floor” guidelines against anticipated campaign acts

The General Council of the National Electoral Institute (INE) approved the Guidelines to Guarantee the Principles of Neutrality, Impartiality and Equity in Electoral Matters, to avoid anticipated pre-campaign and campaign acts by public officials who aspire to other positions of popular election.

In an extraordinary session of the General Council, the counselor Jaime Rivera highlighted that the guidelines respond to an order made by the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary (TEPJF) to the INE on the matter.

He stressed that although article 134 of the Constitution already prohibits public officials from proselytizing, currently several public servants “have sought a way to reverse the prohibitions and find new forms of political clientelism and corporate control of the political preferences”. For this reason, he said, the guidelines are a set of rules “that seek to take care of an even field, offer all contenders a field without undue advantages.”

The also counselor of the INE, Martín Faz Mora, stated that the deployment of the regulatory powers of the INE should not be understood as an invasion of the powers of the Congress of the Union, since it is a dynamism in electoral matters.

“(The guidelines) provide legal certainty so that all political actors are clear about what is prohibited or not in electoral matters, issuing a regulation on level ground,” he said.

Thus, the guidelines establish that when a public servant convenes a conference or press conference to disseminate achievements, programs or projects of the Government, he will incur in the dissemination of government propaganda in the media.

Morena’s representative before the INE, Euríspides Flores, accused the guidelines approved by the General Council of being unconstitutional, and considered that they are an “attempt to silence the President of the Republic with the exercise of morning conferences.”

The representative of the PAN, Víctor Hugo Sondón, spoke in favor of an even floor, arguing that “the intervention of public servants in electoral processes is inequitable, perverse and dirty the development of the election, since they make use of public resources and the instruments of the state to favor a political force”.

The guidelines mention that the work reports that public servants have to issue by law, and the messages that are disseminated in the social media to make them known, must be limited to a specific dissemination period, determined territorial constituency and temporality.

They order officials of the three levels of government and autonomous powers to avoid disseminating messages, by any means, that imply the claim to occupy a position of popular election; issuing expressions that imply personalized promotion for their own benefit or that of a third party; as well as request the vote in favor or against any candidacy, political party or coalition; or some other expression that links them to the federal or local electoral processes, in acts related to the performance of their duties.

They will also be prohibited from attending events in which benefits from institutional programs and activities are delivered when they aspire to compete for elective positions in a federal or local electoral process.

Article 24 of the Guidelines to Guarantee the Principles of Neutrality, Impartiality, and Equity in Electoral Matters mentions that government propaganda, as well as any public or government information, must be institutional, and therefore may not have an electoral nature, that is, “not It must be aimed at influencing the electoral preferences of the citizenry, as well as avoiding exalting the achievements, attributes or qualities of a public servant that could affect any electoral process or mechanism of citizen participation”.

“The events or acts of information carried out by public servants, regardless of the nature or denomination that they want to be granted, must at all times observe and respect the rules of government propaganda”, referred to article 26.

jorge.monroy@eleconomista.mx