The battle is not over yet; We will defend the INE and democracy against “coups of jurisprudence”, says Lorenzo Córdova

Given the imminent approval tonight in the Congress of the Union of the electoral reform (Plan B) that reduces the operational capacity of the National Electoral Institute (INE), the present of this body, Lorenzo Córdova, said that the legal battle to defend the electoral system is not over yet.

“There are those who intend to ring the bells for democracy and for the INE. I think we should tell them to put the shovels away, because it’s not yet burial time; A hard and arduous legal battle is going to come in which those of us who are convinced that the electoral system we have built, although it is perfectible, is a conquest of all, (and) that a tyrannical majority cannot take us away ” , warned the president of the INE.

Córdova Vianello affirmed that the times are still here to defend the electoral system that we have built for decades, exhausting all available legal avenues.

“It will happen to exploit all the legal channels that are within the reach of the citizens, of the citizens, and of the institutions, so that -we trust- tomorrow by blows of jurisprudence we will save our democracy; This construction that is not one, belongs to everyone, and consequently we can continue saying tomorrow that in Mexico we continue to build civic culture and democracy, and not that we have embarked on a path of democratic regression as has unfortunately happened in other countries. “, he claimed.

He argued that “Mexico has an enormous task and historical challenge: to preserve the little of the good that we have done well in the last three decades: to build a democratic system where we are the citizens with our free vote cast in authentic elections by autonomous authorities. of power, and independent of the legitimate -without a doubt- party interests, who decide who governs us and represents us. That is a democratic conquest we are not going to lose”.

The day before, the advisers of the National Electoral Institute (INE) expressed their rejection of the electoral reform (Plan B), as they warned that it would cause serious risks to the electoral operational capacity. They announced that in order to preserve the constitutional order they will promote before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) all controversies, actions of unconstitutionality and amicus curiae that are necessary, in case the norm is approved.

The INE listed six risky elements contained in the electoral reform, known as Plan B, which is supported by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador:

1. The reform lacks the broadest consensus that must exist among political actors to guarantee its legitimacy.
2. The proposed elimination of the 300 District Executive Boards would jeopardize not only the preparation of the Electoral Roll, the installation of polling stations and the counting of the votes, but also the timely monitoring of all radio and television stations in the country, oversight of the activities of political parties and electoral campaigns, and compliance with the obligations aimed at combating Political Violence against Women based on Gender, among other activities that the INE carries out at the district level.
3. Eliminating the permanent sub-delegational structure of the INE and reducing the Electoral Professional Service to a minimum would prevent having qualified personnel as ordered by the Constitution, since the reform contemplates eliminating 84.6% of the positions that today make up said career civil service. “This measure jeopardizes the effectiveness and efficiency with which electoral processes are carried out and the attention in the modules where the Credential to Vote with Photography is processed.”
4. The Constitution indicates that in the INE there will be management bodies, such as the General Council and, on the other hand, executive bodies. However, the reform eliminates the Executive General Board, which would be replaced by an Administration Committee made up of five directors, distorting their management function and involving them in ordinary administrative tasks such as resource management, which are outside their responsibility. management work. In addition, it incorporates that Commission into the Internal Control Body, which goes against its legal nature, which supposes only a supervisory function and not a substantive one.
5. The workers of the National Electoral Professional Service reached their positions through recruitment procedures established by law, such as open public contests; they undergo an evaluation of their performance every year and are subject to a permanent education and training program, for which reason “removing them from their jobs, when they have not committed any fault, but rather have delivered good accounts to citizenship, is to violate their labor rights. By constitutional mandate, both the personnel of the SPEN and those of the Administrative Branch, see their working conditions governed by the respective Statute. The reform contemplates that the workers attached to the Administrative Branch are no longer regulated by said Statute, thus affecting their general working conditions and labor guarantees, which violates their rights expressly established in the Magna Carta”.
6. “The reform proposes the compaction of calendars and the alteration of procedures, some of them on highly sensitive issues, such as the selection of the officers of the Casilla Board of Directors who receive and count the votes of their neighbors. This alteration entails an affectation to the basic organic and procedural guarantees that, until now, have allowed free and authentic elections.