Fabiola Martinez
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, November 9, 2025, p. 8
The National Electoral Institute (INE) has increased the fines for improper party affiliations, a circumstance that occurs mainly when a person is interested in being an election trainer and when completing the procedure they find out that they have already registered them in a party.
At that moment, they file the complaint to demarcate themselves – and be able to continue with the employment process – and thus they go to the registry that is investigated by the INE.
In 2023, the sanctions for this irregularity totaled 1.5 million pesos; in 2024, 9.3 million, and so far in 2025, 28 million pesos.
During the last session of the General Council, of 128 matters presented by the Complaints and Denunciations Commission, 119 were procedures for improper affiliations or disaffiliations.
The original project proposed setting joint fines for the parties – except the PAN – for 32 million pesos for files related to complaints from 874 people. After multiple adjustments and application of criteria, the figure remained at just over 28 million due to proven effects on 259 people.
In the fight for militants, especially due to the rush of groups currently seeking party registration, Emilio Suárez, PRI representative before the INE, declared that the system of fines in that sense no longer works, and added that his party is not concerned about the strategy of the new organizations.
He recalled that it is prohibited for members of political forces to work as electoral trainers, hence the INE “gives them”, along with the job offer, the complaint to allege improper affiliation.
He pointed out that when locating the complainants, many of them recognize that they were militants, but they filed the complaint to get a job, so when they give up the legal action, the fine for the political institutes is reduced, or there are cases where the fine is eliminated due to expiration, after two years without investigation by the INE.
“The most important thing, and what we must stay with, is that the INE sanctions system, from my perspective and from that of all the parties, has been overcome. Every year, when there is an electoral process, improper affiliations increase, this means that there is something that is wrong in the electoral period, so the authority must sit down with the six parties.
“It’s like the old popular saying: when the six students (parties) do poorly in their grades, whose fault is it? The student or the teacher? What we are saying is that the methodology for reviewing the issue is something that can be improved in order to prevent the sanctions, increased over time, from suffocating the prerogatives of the parties,” Suárez commented.
He warned that if this issue is not corrected, cases will continue to increase next year, with the election in Coahuila, and in the 2027 process.
With just over two months to go until the registration deadline for new parties expires, the groups are looking for militants.
Building Peace Societies (whose leaders in the past promoted the Social Encounter Party, linked to churches) has 232 assemblies (32 more than the minimum required) and 135,449 members, of the 256,030 needed.
In turn, Somos México (promoted by former INE officials and others identified by the Pink Tide) has 153 assemblies and 100,889 members.
