The Temporary Commission of the INE for the Extraordinary Electoral Process for the election of positions in the Judicial Branch of the Federation 2024-2025 endorsed in session a draft of Guidelines that will regulate surveys and opinion polls in this extraordinary electoral process.
For natural and legal persons who carry out this type of demoscopic exercises, the same rules that already exist for those who conduct surveys and polls in electoral processes to elect popular representatives and government positions will apply, that is, they must notify the INE and send it the scientific criteria. that support their work.
Also, as applies to candidates for these elected positions, for candidates for judicial positions – indicates the approved project – “the hiring, by itself or through an intermediary, of natural or legal persons who carry out surveys and opinion polls will be prohibited.”
Also in a manner homologated to ordinary elections, when surveys or polls are detected “that are disseminated before they are made known by a media, they will be seen” to initiate investigation procedures.
Likewise, if it is proven that a candidate obtained a benefit from such dissemination and it is not a survey disseminated in the media, nor with scientific criteria registered with the INE, the person holding the standard would be sanctioned by accounting for the benefit of that survey.
The President of the Commission, Jorge Montaño, stated that in the original project there was “a gap (because) we must review who can broadcast surveys on networks and who is paying for them.”
If this persists, “it would open the door for any candidate to violate this provision,” which is why it was proposed, and endorsed, that the General Directorate of Social Communication of the INE will be the body in charge of monitoring social networks and digital platforms. on opinion polls and surveys where candidates appear.
This, the counselor explained, “will provide a report on the findings detected so that it can be determined whether it is a survey or poll, or possible propaganda that threatens equity in the contest.”
He recalled that the Technical Unit for Electoral Litigation (UTC) is the body empowered to carry out such investigations and determine whether it is propaganda or not, while the Technical Control Unit could determine the origin of the financing of the poll in question.
Counselor Norma Irene de la Cruz recalled that work is already underway on changes to the Inspection Regulations and it will also be established that improper dissemination of surveys will be punishable.
In the session, the councilors had the report that of 517 regulations, guidelines, agreements and others that regulate the tasks of the INE, 92 must be reformed to adapt them to the judicial election, however there is work overload to carry out all the updates at this time.