INE proposes allocating 6 thousand million pesos to elect judges and magistrates

Fabiola Martinez

La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, December 22, 2024, p. 4

Amid internal divisions, the National Electoral Institute (INE) has not defined the destination of the 20 billion available for 2025 and, although several sessions of this analysis have passed, the advisory boards for this purpose will be reestablished next week.

The initial proposal is to allocate 6,132 million pesos to the judicial election, less than half of the 13,205 million requested from the Chamber of Deputies, although a block of counselors – according to sources consulted – suggests leaving the resources without any reduction. programmed for the operation of the INE (15 billion) and, therefore, apply less than 5 billion to elect ministers, magistrates and judges.

While Morena’s representative before the INE, Sergio Gutiérrez Luna, said that the INE does have room for maneuver to reduce its expenses, counselors affirmed that the body’s activities are a priority because they are of service to citizens, such as the issuance of the credential to vote – which is the most accepted identification –, update the registry, address political violence and supervise parties and candidates, to mention a few.

However, the councilors avoid mentioning the cost of payroll (more than 60 percent of available spending), the salaries of their 20,000 workers, as well as the range of benefits and incentives, or the famous electoral bonus, which is defended under the argument that during the electoral process all days and hours are business days. Nor do they usually refer to purchases of goods and services or the cost of operating multiple office buildings.

In this context, the Internal Control Body (OIC) of the INE ratified in its most recent report, accompaniment 2025 budget, that the INE must reengineer its structure, human and material resources, and improve practices in the development of the systems.

The document establishes that since the 2019 reports, the OIC has indicated findings: lack of documentary evidence that proves the need for the resources requested by different areas; This is exemplified, he adds, by the fact that on several occasions quotes, list prices, market studies, etc. were missing.

In addition, lack of justification to support the requests for projects; No calculation reports, templates and vacancy analysis, expense items, among other items that justified the methodology to determine the resources requested for personal services (payroll) were presented.

The OIC adds differences in the amounts captured in the forms with respect to the amounts indicated in the system’s databases.

Call to register

In a race against time, the INE called for registration to work as electoral supervisors and trainers (Caes) in the preparation of the judicial election.

Although the body has not yet issued the call and has several delays (in December 2023 it had already published the invitation for the federal elections in June), councilors assure that despite the budget cut, they will maintain the offer to raise the salary of the Caes.

For the 2024 federal process, the INE hired 7,123 supervisors and 42,657 trainers, with monthly salaries of between 9,500 and 15,785 pesos.

Although the salaries for the Caes who participate in the judicial election have not yet been officially announced, We were thinking of having an increase so that salaries would fluctuate between 15,785 and 19,500 pesos per monthsaid counselor Dania Ravel.

He recalled that for the organization of the last elections, for the renewal of the Presidency of the Republic and the Congress of the Union, it was difficult to meet the needs in this matter, precisely because non-competitive salaries were offered.

For now, the councilors estimate that at least half of those who participated in the previous election will repeat this function, although they recognize that the Caes will have an overload of work if the reduction of 172 thousand polling stations throughout the country by voting centers is confirmed.