The head of the INE has always been chosen by the president in turn: Pablo Gómez
Fabiola Martinez
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday, November 11, 2022, p. 13
Pablo Gómez Álvarez, former legislator and current head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), accused that the former presidents of the Republic have appointed, except on one occasion, the president councilors of the then Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) , today the National Electoral Institute (INE).
On his Twitter account he stated: We all know that José Woldenberg was placed in the IFE by the then President of the Republic, Ernesto Zedillo. Likewise, Enrique Peña Nieto put Lorenzo Córdova in the new INE. What can they say to the country on this issue?
Later, in an interview, he pointed out that it is an indisputable fact
that the head of the Executive elected the president and the parties distributed the other seats in the highest decision-making body of the electoral body, called by the councilors themselves the horseshoe of democracy
.
The exception, he said, was in 2005, when the PRI named the councilor president and the PAN submitted
. In that year, the owner was Luis Carlos Ugalde (his predecessor, Woldenberg) and his successor, Leonardo Valdés (2008-2013) who was also anointed by the president
Gomez stated.
Just on Wednesday of this week, organizations opposed to the electoral reform promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that Woldenberg, IFE’s first counselor president (1996-2003), will be the sole speaker at Sunday’s march, called for defend autonomy
of the INE.
Critic of the electoral system
The promoters of this mobilization assure that the constitutional reform initiative in electoral matters – currently under analysis in the Chamber of Deputies – has as its purpose that the head of the Executive appoint his own as electoral advisers.
Gómez Álvarez, with a long career as a party leader, legislator and, at the time, part of the general council of the IFE, as a representative of the Legislative Power, has been a constant critic of the electoral system, particularly of the structure of the now INE, by ensuring that the directors are not independent, but respond to interest groups.
In 2019, already as a deputy for Morena, he came to propose the disappearance of the general council to leave the administrative operation of the INE to its executive general board. No party should have voting agents in the INE
then stressed.
Last April, Gómez Álvarez was one of the speakers who presented the electoral reform initiative at the morning press conference at the National Palace. On that occasion he said that the proposed new model will give the country a safe electoral system that respects the vote and guarantees honesty and legality.
We are in the effective fight against the purchase of suffrage, but a new reform is necessary to ensure that no government, no company and no economic power can buy votes, nor use illicit instruments to bias the popular will.
