Lilian Hernandez Osorio
The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, September 17, 2024, p. 14
Political violence, the influence of organized crime, intimidation of candidates and the murder of political actors are worrying situations that interfered with the electoral process that concluded on August 28 in Mexico, international observers concluded in one of the reports they submitted to the National Electoral Institute (INE).
Although the institute’s organization for carrying out such large-scale elections was applauded, one of the 16 final reports of the electoral observation missions for the 2023-2024 electoral process warned that the impact of violence on the elections and their results is alarming.
The deputy director of the Applied Research and Learning Center of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Fernanda Buril, stated that in addition to these red flags, they detected that there is still an abuse of state resources during the campaigns; the access of some candidates to these resources, and declarations of victory before the publication of the official results
.
He pointed out that it is urgent that both electoral authorities and the government in power put emphasis in the prevention of political violence and the optimization of special voting booths
.
Another report highlighted areas that could be improved, such as accessibility issues and the location of voting booths.
The observers were in Mexico at different times, before, during and after the election day.
They mentioned that there is a lot of misunderstanding about the function of the special voting booth, which is unique in the region, and considered the claims to the INE to be unjustified because the ballots have run out when political decisions prevent there being more.
