Otálora, who today ended his nine-year period in office, also said goodbye but with the proposal to return the cases to the INE so that an exhaustive investigation could be carried out to find those responsible for financing and distributing the accordions, since the challengers denounced a lack of exhaustiveness.
This would set criteria for 2027, he said, but his proposal was rejected.
“We are speaking, in effect, of a systemic and widespread action, which allegedly benefited various candidates, both at the federal and local levels.”
“The INE must investigate in a comprehensive and exhaustive manner the events that were reported. And here I highlight that the appellant also provided evidence. To be a full democracy, we must exercise it fully,” explained Otálora.
Reyes assured that “it would contribute to the judicial election, in short, to democracy and electoral integrity if these investigations were continued in any matter, whether in oversight or sanctions.”
But he divided the issues of accordions and oversight and stated that for him indirect responsibility does exist in the majority of the candidates that appeared on the lists.
“First, because their names, positions, ballot numbers and colors appeared in the propaganda. Second, because there were sufficient indications of knowledge about the existence of the materials.
“And third, because the boundaries presented, although formally valid, were legally ineffective, since the benefit derived from the propaganda could not be rejected or reversed. Consequently, it is concluded that the candidates obtained an undue benefit consisting of the positioning generated by the dissemination of their name, number and color of the ballot in front of the electorate, as well as the request to vote in their favor.”
However, the three remaining judges formed the majority.
Fuentes Barrera stated “the evidentiary deficiency was structural. I repeat, the authorship, nor the financing of the materials, nor the benefit or effective knowledge of the candidacies and the boundaries presented, which were timely and effective, were not accredited.”
In his opinion, “punishment under these conditions is equivalent to imposing responsibility without proof, and replacing certainty with conjecture, which violates the principles of legality and presumption of innocence. Therefore, the only consequence compatible with the rule of law is the outright revocation of the contested resolutions,” he stated.
“The desire to want to go for more, to want to investigate more or to want to demonstrate is not enough,” warned President Soto.
“The mere existence of physical and digital propaganda with various profiles is insufficient to prove its territoriality, as well as its effective distribution and dissemination in the geographical area covered by the election, because only the existence of 336 physical accordions of 10 different models was proven. While, of the digital propaganda, only the existence of three websites was proven.”
He assured that only unused accordions were checked and they never saw accordions that had been used.
