Governments ‘hang’ OPLES
The governments of all parties affected the operation of these local electoral bodies through budget cuts, but in the case of those administered by Morena, they have suffered more from adjustments in their spending.
The biggest crisis is recorded in the OPLE of Zacatecaswhere the Morenoist David Monreal governs, with consecutive cuts in 2024 and 2025 and without sufficient resources for the judicial election that, despite everything, was held in June.
In general, it suffers a deficit of 83% of the resources if one considers those requested as the 2025 budget and then to carry out the local judicial election.
The year-end balance is that although the local electoral body requested 177 million pesos for its ordinary 2025 expenditure and the judicial elections, only 30 million pesos were authorized, so the shortfall is 147.2 million pesos.
Added to this situation is that the OPLE still owes the state Finance Secretariat 10 million pesos received at the end of 2023 as an advance of what it would exercise in 2024. And then the state Congress applied a budget cut of 33.89% for that year.
This Zacatecan organization has been in financial distress for three years and has even struggled to cover payroll payments.
Other Morenoist states also register a deficit in their resources: 67.8% in San Luis Potosí, 53.9% in the case of Tamaulipas; 63.23% in Chiapas, and 63.23% in Puebla.
They are not the only ones, in Querétaro there is 47% less between what is requested and what is authorized by Congress or by the Executive as part of expansions, while in Aguascalientes it is 31%. In both entities the PAN governs.
In the case of the PRI, the adjustments are minor, in Coahuila 0.312% and in Durango 9.1%. In the entities governed by MC the adjustment reaches 49.3% in Nuevo León and is only 0.26% in Jalisco.
Judicial election debts
San Luis Potosí, at a yellow traffic light in terms of resources to cover the judicial election, is still waiting for 16.4 million pesos.
Almost two months after the election, he asked the state government for a budget increase, as he required 21.1 million pesos to cover the collaboration agreement with the INE for electoral documentation and materials.
But after the election, on June 18, the local Executive said it did not have resources, even so on September 15 it transferred 3.8 million pesos, but the rest remains to be covered.
The OPLE of Colima is still waiting for 12.3 million pesos, because although it has already covered most of the expenses of the local judicial electoral process, it still registers shortfalls to cover the entire amount exercised.
They apply austerity
The ordinary operation of the OPLES has been affected by cuts applied by Congress.
In Yucatán, governed by Morena and the Labor Party with Jesús Díaz Mena, Congress cut OPLE spending by 2025 by nearly 30 million pesos.
For this reason, the OPLE required at least 21.4 million in January to cover workers’ salaries for the months of November to December, the operation and performance of the Public Defender’s Office for Political-Electoral Rights, the continuity of programs to promote civic education, as well as commitments made in 2024.
Then, with the judicial election, it used 5.2 million pesos from operating expenses, items such as similar fees, base salary for temporary staff, social security costs, printing and preparation of informative material to cover expenses of the local judicial election, which increased the pressure for the institute’s ordinary expenses.
It had to make internal adjustments and take from other items to pay labor benefits for its workers.
Despite this, the INE considered that its risk level is medium “since it will be able to comply with the payment of staff salaries and bonuses in the final two months of the year.”
