The INE does not annul elections, that is the power of the TEPJF: Humphrey

Fabiola Martinez

The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, September 7, 2024, p. 8

In the final stretch of the process of oversight at the National Electoral Institute (INE) of cases related to June 2, Councilor Carla Humphrey, who as of yesterday is the president of the respective commission, stressed that the INE does not annul elections.

This authority does not annul elections, it is not its competence. That is done, in this case, by the superior chamber of the Electoral Court of the Judicial Branch of the Federation.he said in the midst of a discussion on the issue of the Álvaro Obregón mayor’s office in Mexico City, which revived the debate in the INE on the criteria for imposing fines and, as in this capital matter, declaring the existence of an excess over the campaign spending limit.

As a preamble to what would be a series of criteria resolved with divided votes, Humphrey said that he was not clear about the way in which the Technical Oversight Unit (UTF) arrived at the sums and conclusions to declare the 6.7 percent overrun of the candidate Javier López Casarín, of the Morena, Verde and Labor parties. In the end, the overrun was adjusted to 5.8 percent.

While his colleague Uuc-kib Espadas asked his colleagues not to be tolerant of the lack of modesty in spending and much less make up Regarding the figures for sanctions, the councillor clarified that her criticism was not directed at the documented irregularities, but rather at evaluating the method of inspection, investigating more thoroughly, especially when it comes to materials disseminated on social networks and the different page administrators involved, in addition to defining criteria for setting the costs of products and services not declared by the contenders.

We already know that they did not report certain things. What we want to know is how much that amount amounts to. That is how clear my doubts are regarding this ruling. That is why I say: let us not be in the debate about whether we are going to annul or not, that will be determined by the higher court, not by us.he stressed.

In addition, 39 ex officio procedures regarding oversight were resolved at last Thursday’s session, i.e. investigations carried out by the UTF, after detecting alleged irregularities and omissions by the contenders in federal and local elections.

All parties were sanctioned in varying amounts, although not significant compared to the public resources received; the highest in this block did not exceed half a million pesos. Except for the Álvaro Obregón mayor’s office, in no other case was the spending limit declared exceeded, as in the Cuauhtémoc mayor’s office; a deputy and the municipal presidency of Tlalnepantla, state of Mexico, and Guadalajara, Jalisco, to mention some resolutions.

In addition, the INE reported that this year, fines amount to 93.7 million pesos as a result of all administrative processes, a tiny percentage considering that 3,304 million pesos were allocated for campaign expenses for the federal elections alone.