The president advisor of the National Electoral Institute (INE), Guadalupe Taddei Zavala, warned that the electoral and judicial reform promoted by President Claudia Sheinbaum could put the neutrality of the organization at risk. By creating a Commission for Verification of Integrity in Candidacies, the INE would assume functions that do not correspond to it.
“The INE cannot, nor should it, become a judge and part of a political contest,” Taddei declared at a press conference. “Our constitutional function is to organize elections, guarantee conditions of equity, certainty, legality and transparency.”
The risks of reform
The initiative seeks to modify the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures to create a permanent body within the INE, made up of five councilors with an annual rotating presidency. This mechanism would receive lists of candidates from parties or independent candidates on a voluntary basis, send them to security and intelligence authorities for risk analysis, and notify the existence of a “reasonable risk” under confidentiality.
Taddei stressed that, although the proposal indicates that it does not replace party responsibility in the selection of candidates, there is a danger of assigning the INE functions that violate its character as a neutral authority. “If the legal framework forced the INE to judge the probity of a person on its own, this authority would be placed at the center of the political dispute,” he stated.
The president of the INE was emphatic: the responsibility of investigating and sanctioning possible links with illicit activities falls exclusively on the justice, intelligence and public security authorities. “Our function is not to validate the integrity of the candidatures or to qualify background information,” he stated.
Taddei’s position highlights the importance of maintaining the independence of the INE to guarantee transparency and fairness in future electoral processes.
