The Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection reported that 23 murders occurred during the electoral process, of which nine were against registered candidates, four against pre-candidates and 10 against aspiring candidates.
MEXICO CITY (apro).-The Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) that attended the general elections of June 2 in Mexico regretted and “strongly” condemned the acts of violence that occurred during the political campaigns and on election day and warned about possible reforms to the voting system.
In a preliminary report on the Mexican elections, the Mission noted that in the stage prior to the elections there were attempts to reform various electoral laws and warned that “any proposal for reform must always have as its objective the strengthening of the electoral bodies, both in their autonomy and in their specialization, and never restrict their independence or technical capacity.”
The opposite would “result in a setback for Mexican democracy,” indicated the report of the OAS Mission, which was headed by the former foreign minister of Chile, the socialist Heraldo Muñoz, and which included 97 people of 24 nationalities whose objective was to observe the electoral process in the 32 entities of the country.
Without referring to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s “Plan C,” which includes legal reforms to the National Electoral Institute (INE), the Mission expressed “the importance of always safeguarding the independence, autonomy and professionalism of the electoral authorities, something from which the political system and Mexican society as a whole would benefit.”
It also considered that the Mexican electoral system “does not require profound reforms to continue guaranteeing the full exercise of suffrage and fair elections.”
The OAS observers met with various political and social actors who stated that the budget cuts made to the INE and the Local Public Bodies required adjustments in their work to carry out their functions.
They also expressed their concern about the high number of staff resignations in the organization and the lack of appointments of heads of departments within the INE since, of 16 directorates, coordinations and units that depend on the Executive Secretariat and the Presidency of the General Council, 9 are not headed by heads.
The mission recommended strengthening the autonomy of the INE “through provisions that guarantee it a sufficient budget and the timely receipt of funds.”
According to the report, the electoral authorities reported that between September 7, 2023 and May 30, 2024, the INE received 163 complaints for violation of constitutional article 134 (on the transparent and impartial use of the state budget) and 8 complaints for the use of public resources.
Of this number, the Mission stressed, 52 complaints were filed against President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that gave rise to 31 proceedings, 12 of which were referred to the Specialized Regional Chamber and 19 are in process. In addition, 40 requests for precautionary measures against the president were filed.
In order to strengthen compliance with constitutional regulations by public officials on the impartial use of resources under their responsibility, in order not to influence the fairness of competition between political parties, the Mission recommended sanctioning the offenders.
For this reason, it proposed establishing “a gradual catalogue of sanctions in the electoral justice system so that those public servants who commit infractions during an election process for authorities can be sanctioned by the electoral authorities.”
The most recurrent complaints in the meetings held by the Mission were those related to López Obrador’s statements during his morning conferences known as “las mañaneras.”
Electoral violence
In its 45-page report, the OAS mission expressed its concern about the political violence that occurred during the campaigns in order to affect the free and transparent conduct of the electoral process and influence its results, which occurred in the broader context of political and criminal violence that Mexico has experienced for years.
The Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection reported that 23 murders occurred during the electoral process, of which nine were against registered candidates, four were against pre-candidates and 10 were against people aspiring to the election, although the Mission warned that these figures are far below those reported by civil society groups (between 33 and 36 homicides).
The observers pointed out that during the closing of the electoral campaigns, the night before the elections and on the day of the election, the Mission learned of four more murders against candidates.
The candidate for the municipal presidency of Coyuca de Benítez, Alfredo Cabrera, was murdered on May 29, and two days later the murder of the candidate for councilor in Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, Jorge Huerta, occurred.
The night before the election, the candidate for mayor Israel Delgado Vega was assassinated in Cuitzeo, Michoacán, and on the night of the election, the PRI candidate for mayor of Santo Domingo Armenta, Oaxaca, Yonis Atenógenes Baños Bustos, was assassinated.
But the list of victims and the statistics “fail to capture one of the most pernicious effects of electoral violence: the withdrawal of participation, both by the withdrawal of candidacies in response to violent threats, and by the decision not to vote or attend political events out of fear,” the report indicated.
Source: proceso
