The General Council of National Electoral Institute (INE) unanimously approved the appointment of Roberto Heycher Cardiel Soto as manager of the office of the Executive Secretary, after Edmundo Jacobo was dismissed by order of the electoral reform of the federal government and Morena, known as “Plan B”.
In an extraordinary session of the General Council, Cardiel Soto —who was working as Executive Director of Electoral Training and Civic Education—, protested as in charge of the office of the Executive Secretary of the INEwhile next May the person in charge of said Secretariat is designated.
The President of the INE, Lorenzo Cordova Vianelloaffirmed that throughout its brief, but intense and fruitful history, the Institute “has always, invariably, acted in absolute adherence to the rule of law and this will not be the exception, even if it means taking the first steps to implement a reform that condemns the institution to an imposed dismemberment”.
Córdova estimated that the electoral reform decree known as Plan B, has as its real and concrete objective, at least due to its foreseeable effects, “severely damaging the basic conditions to hold free and authentic elections in our country” and dynamites the INE of the citizens and the citizens.
In compliance with reform decree published on Thursday in the Official Gazette of the Federationthe president of the INE explained that the appointment of a person in charge of the office of the Executive Secretariat in the INE, is “due to the notoriously unconstitutional, arbitrary and unilateral dismissal of Mr. Edmundo Jacobo Molina.”
Córdova Vianello asserted that as evidence of the constellation of unconstitutionalities that the reform decree implies, “the general principle of law that establishes that legal norms must be general, impersonal and abstract is flagrantly violated. Contrary to the elementary principle, Plan B determined the immediate dismissal of a specific person with a first and last name: Edmundo Jacobo Molina”.
“Such is the fear of professionalism, capacity, dedication, integrity and rectitude of an exemplary public servant, that the first effect of the reform, even before it entered into force, is to unconstitutionally dismiss who has been Executive Secretary of this Institute and that, I am sure, it will soon resume that function”, stressed Lorenzo Córdova.
Counselor Dania Ravel pointed out that the INE General Council complies with the new legal provisions and, first of all, appoints a person in charge of the office of the Executive Secretary because, although there was an Executive Secretary in office and designated to complete his assignment until February 2026, “the Legislative Branch determined that, with the entry into force of the decree, the person in charge of the Executive Secretariat would cease his functions as of its publication.”
Ravel addressed the citizens of Coahuila and the State of Mexico and guaranteed them that, despite the entry into force of the electoral reform, “we will make all the necessary efforts to continue organizing impartial, equitable electoral processes and attached to the legal framework”.
Plan B lacks legislative seriousness
the counselor Cyrus Murayama considered that the so-called Plan B is as abusive as deficient, since the decree establishes in its first transitory article that “it will enter into force the day after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation”, but the seventeenth transitory reads : Given the modification of the powers of the Executive Secretariat with the entry into force of this decree, the person holding said position will cease to hold office as of its publication.
For this reason, Murayama said, “they dismissed the Executive Secretary one day before Plan B came into force, as well as the lack of legislative seriousness,” he said.
Murayama clarified that the Executive Secretariat does not disappear with Plan B because “they could not erase a figure enshrined in the Constitution; they do reduce it, they distort it and, with it, the Executive General Board, which is replaced by an Administration Commission made up of electoral advisers. Once again, Plan B is contrary to the Constitution, by mixing the members of the highest management body of the INE, the General Council, with an executive body”.
For the INE, the law is the law and it applies
Among the many provisions that are unconstitutional and harmful to the functions of the INE, “the dismissal of the Executive Secretary contains all the vices and aggravating circumstances to invalidate a norm,” said the counselor Jaime Rivera.
“First, because it invades a competence expressly conferred by the Constitution on this General Council. Congress, through the Chamber of Deputies, has the authority to designate the electoral advisers of the INE, but not the head of the Executive Secretariat. It also has an aggravating circumstance because, as any law student knows, all legal norms must have a general, abstract and impersonal character ”, which is not fulfilled in the reform, he justified.
However, it confirmed that the INE complies with the legal regulations that apply to it while they are in force. “For us, the law is the law and we abide by it.”
Resignation of the Executive Secretary goes against the autonomy of the INE
the counselor Uuc-kib Swords assured that the dismissal of Edmundo Jacobo Molina is, without a doubt, a direct violation of the autonomy of the General Council of the INE. “The Constitution is clear and unambiguous. This Council is the one who has the power to designate the Executive Secretary of the INE by qualified majority ”, he recalled.
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