Greater powers to the referee
For him counselor of the INE, Jaime Rivera, Another issue is granting powers to the institute not to grant the registration of candidatures to people with verifiable signs of criminal conduct, but determined by the competent authorities, not the Institute. Remember that in the last judicial election, the INE was asked to “remove” candidates allegedly linked to these behaviors.
“The INE should be empowered so that whoever is, according to the competent authority, linked to crime, cannot be registered as a candidate. It is not up to the INE to supplant either the police or the Prosecutor’s Offices. And neither is it up to the will of the parties,” he warns.
For Rivera, giving this power to the INE must start from establishing which judicial authority will be responsible for presenting evidence of criminal collusion before the institute.
Cancel match registration
The co-responsibility of political parties in nominating candidates is another aspect that specialists consider important to review, especially in cases in which even when there are indications or allegations of criminal links, they decide to nominate certain candidates or in cases in which there is illicit financing. In these cases the consequences must reach them, say the specialists.
For former councilor Arturo Sánchez, the cancellation of the registry is the most severe measure, but it must be considered within a framework of rules and not in isolation.
“This is a set of regulations that allow action to be taken, for parties to be more careful in appointing their candidates and for the State to carry out the corresponding investigations to find these types of cases,” says Sánchez.
Among the actions it proposes is greater transparency in the candidate selection processes, as well as knowing their financing sources.
A point that, according to Espinosa Silis, has so far been avoided by the parties.
“The parties do not want to get involved and although they sign commitments, the 8 out of 8 is presented, to make their assets or conflicts of interest transparent, in the end nothing happens (…) all the parties have lost candidates, the truth is that they have a dubious reputation or a track record,” he says.
Looking ahead to the 2027 elections, the expert comments, the parties should already have planned who their possible candidates will be and should already begin to investigate them.
