Enrique Mendez
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, February 15, 2022, p. 6
Yesterday, the Political Reform Commission of the Chamber of Deputies approved changes to the Political Parties Law and the Federal Budget Law, so that these organizations can return part of their prerogatives directly to the Treasury without prior authorization from the National Electoral Institute (INE).
It is a reform promoted by Morena, which has complained about the obstacles of the General Council to the partial return of the financing that corresponds to it and that this year amounts to 1,738 million pesos. That party intended to return 200 million corresponding to last year, but the councilors have responded that the current regulations do not provide for that figure and that, in any case, it could return funds when the 2021 audit concludes.
The argument put forward by Morena is that she wants to contribute to the purchase of vaccines against the coronavirus. On January 12, the INE rejected the return and in response the icing bench in the Chamber presented an initiative on January 25. The commission, chaired by Graciela Sánchez (Morena), gave priority over other pending initiatives and ruled yesterday.
In this way, it was included in both laws that the parties will decide the amount to be returned and that the resources may be used to help in the cost of education, health or to attend to the needs of the population due to damages caused during natural disasters.
In the discussion of the project, the PAN –which voted against– argued that if Morena wanted to contribute to financing the purchase of vaccines, it should have included the necessary funds from the Expenditure Budget.
Santiago Torreblanca said that even when the reform is presented as seemingly noble
, the political parties already have the authority to request the INE to partially renounce the financing that has not been granted to them. He added that from now on they can inform the General Council of the amount they do not want to receive in March. No reform needed
.
However, deputies from Morena, PT, and even from the PRI defended the changes and at the time of voting, the majority accepted a reservation from the PRI member Cristina Ruiz to specify that it is not a question of a return, but of reimbursing funds, as well as detailing the areas to which the resources will be allocated.
Thus, the PVEM, which initially rejected the measure, changed the direction of its votes.
