The INE invalidates changes in the PRI that lengthened the leadership of Alito

Fabiola Martinez and Emir Olivares

Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday February 28, 2023, p. eleven

In a divided vote, the general council of the National Electoral Institute (INE) did not endorse the recent statutory reform of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), from which the leader of the tricolorAlejandro Moreno Cárdenas, extended his term until after the 2024 elections.

Although the project endorsed with the votes of six of the 11 directors does not go to the bottom of the partisan resolutions, it does declare the impossibility of ruling on the constitutional and legal origin of the modifications presented. Right away, the tricolor announced that will exhaust all legal instances.

It should be remembered that INE resolutions can be challenged before the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary.

The case began on December 19, when the PRI leadership, led by Moreno, convened a session of the National Political Council (CPN) – and not a national assembly – to approve statutory reforms.

Although the basic documents of this party allow this possibility, they are also clear that to do it via CPN it must be a justified casea legal reform or a court order.

Opponents of alito Moreno, among them Senator Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, argued before the INE that the aforementioned assumptions were not met, especially because the aforementioned electoral reform was at that time a future event of uncertain realization.

Six votes in favor

And this criterion was supported by a majority of six directors: Lorenzo Córdova, Ciro Murayama, Norma de la Cruz, Claudia Zavala, Jaime Rivera and Martín Faz, against the position of Carla Humphrey, Roberto Ruiz, Adriana Favela, Dania Ravel and Uuc- kib Swords.

The latter, as president of the commission that elaborated the project, had first justified it extensively, stating that he did not like when the central authorities of a party are the ones who extend the mandate of leaders elected in assemblies, but at the end of the discussion of the point, the meaning of their vote changed surprisingly.

The councilors who were a minority stated, with different approaches, that it is not up to the INE to assess the motivations or foundations of the party, but only to verify compliance with the approval of the aforementioned statutory reform, which was fulfilled, since they pointed out that 87 percent of the participants in the CPN gave their endorsement and did not ask to do so in an assembly.

This matter was the most dense political discussion yesterday’s long session, as defined by Espadas himself in front of two representatives of the PRI, Rubén Moreira and Hiram Hernández, who warned the councilors that if they did not approve the statutory reform they would be affected in their political-electoral strategy and even to continue defending our institutionsHiram said.

The comment made Murayama uncomfortable because he told them that the advisers we are not part of the opposition strategy nor are we at the service of the government. It is just as wrong for the government to call us opponents, as it is for the opposition to be convinced that our decisions can help them in their strategies..

Looking at his colleagues, he added: The day we do either of the two things, put ourselves at the service of the government or support an opposition political strategy, we will be betraying our constitutional mission.