Secondary laws of judicial reform are approved in commissions

Enrique Mendez

La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, October 14, 2024, p. 3

Without changes to the Senate minutes, the Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies approved last night the two opinions with the framework that will regulate next year’s exercise to elect judges, magistrates and ministers, and that gives powers to the National Electoral Institute ( INE) to conduct the process and until the votes for one or more candidates included in the same ballot are declared valid.

During the three and a half hour debate to approve the general laws of the System of Means of Challenge and Electoral Institutions and Procedures, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) detected inconsistencies. The coordinator of the bench, Rubén Moreira, explained that the Senate eliminated a specialized commission from the upper chamber of the Electoral Court and its mentions in the articles of the electoral law.

“Except in article 471, number six, where they left a commission alive, which no longer exists. This reservation does apply, we must tell the senators that the minute is coming back and they take it out in fast track”. He announced that the reservation to suppress the mention of that instance in said article would be presented this Monday in the plenary discussion.

He explained that this is not the only error or inconsistency; For example, he added, the Constitution provides that the vote will be with the name seat of the candidate, but the law speaks of mark or seat; The number of ballot boxes per election is not specified nor if there will be votes from Mexicans abroad.

As is usual between the benches, the debate had rough moments. The National Action Party (PAN) insisted that the legal reform, like the constitutional reform, will allow the interference of organized crime. Lilia Aguilar Gil (PT) returned: They are right. Organized crime will probably want to participate, in fact it has already declared it: Roberto Gil Zuarth, linked to (Genaro) García Luna, they were part of the same government and political group, has said that he will participate in the process. But to avoid that, there are padlocks.

The majority deputies insisted that the reform seeks to end the endogamous and corrupt system in the Judiciary. PANism revealed that ministers such as Olga Sánchez Cordero and Arturo Zaldívar, today in Morena, emerged from the recently repealed system.

The General Law of the Means of Challenge System includes the electoral trial mechanism to challenge the results of the election of the members of the PJF, a figure that, Guillermo Anaya (PAN) maintained, is not developed in depth.

Such an appeal could only be brought by the interested personbut notes that “no evidence may be offered or provided, as it is strictly legal, except in extraordinary cases of supervening evidence, when it is decisive for the restriction to be proven (sic) alleged.”

Among the majority deputies themselves, it was also found that the addition for the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to resolve challenges in the election of the members of the upper chamber of the Electoral Tribunal would be unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, in the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures, among other points, the powers of the INE are expanded, not only to define the guidelines for the organization, development and calculation of the process, but also to approve the ballot model and the cost limits of Campaign.

The law will also allow a vote to be valid when it is cast. in favor of a clearly identifiable candidacy, regardless of whether two or more votes may be cast for different candidates on the same ballot.

In this case, the INE will determine the number of valid votes that each voter can cast on the same ballot.