The INE plans to allocate $13 billion to the election of judges

Fabiola Martinez

La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, October 27, 2024, p. 3

The National Electoral Institute (INE) outlines a budget precautionary of 13 thousand 205 million 143 thousand 620 pesos to organize the election of members of the Judiciary. The topic must be defined before October 31, that is, no later than next Wednesday, both in committee and in the General Council.

The preliminary figure referred to, of the precautionary budget to elect a little more than 800 judges, is less by just 50 million pesos compared to the 13,255 million pesos that the INE will request from the Chamber of Deputies as its base budget for its expenses. ; 69.3 percent of that amount is to cover the body’s payroll, made up of about 20 thousand workers, already with the increase of 3.3 percent to compensate for the inflation projected by the Treasury.

On the other hand, the financial idea for the election of ministers, magistrates and judges would be greater than the 8,802 million authorized for the federal election last June, where the Congress of the Union and the Presidency of the Republic were renewed.

Among the highest concepts for the forecast of the judicial election are 6,830 million from the Electoral Training Directorate (where the trainers of polling station officials are located), and 4,522 million for the Electoral Organization Directorate (logistics and ballots) , as well as 1,124 million for Administration.

Yesterday the Temporary Budget Commission 2025 met, in which the details for the functionality of the INE in 2025 were presented, whose budget request will be 27,270 million pesos; As was said, a base of 13,255 million for the election of judges; In addition, 7,354 million for parties (money that is given to them directly), and a pool of 4,620 million for popular consultations, among many more items than what is known as the Institutional Project Portfolio.

That is, if there are no requests for consultations next month, the money must be excluded from the budget approved by the Chamber of Deputies. A similar situation would occur with the election of judges, since when placing the amount as precautionary budgetthis could be decreased or increased.

According to a working document from the INE, the entire framework of the electoral function, including judicial reform, would represent an expense of 40,476 million pesos for the country next year.

The largest items, as already indicated, are the 13,255 million only as the operational base of the INE, as well as those of political parties, popular consultations and the election of the Judiciary.

Despite the fact that the previous data was circulated at the level of working groups, the president of the Temporary Budget Commission 2025, Uuc-kib Espadas, refused to address the issue in yesterday’s session, arguing that by ruling of the Court The parties could not be electoral.

We will continue with the approval route established in accordance with the scope of the different jurisdictional processeshe indicated. This, despite the fact that counselor Norma de la Cruz insisted on knowing more about the issue, even with the clarification that for now they are provisional numbers.

The person in charge of the Internal Control Body (OIC), Luis Oswaldo Peralta, and the representative of Morena, Jaime Castañeda, joined the approach, insisting that a first breakdown in the working groups had already been made and that transparency was appropriate.

Counselor Espadas interrupted the Morenista to emphasize that the participation of the parties is prohibited from the judicial election process.

At the end of the session, the presiding counselor, Guadalupe Taddei, congratulated those who prepared the INE budget profile for 2025, and stressed that progress was made in the documentary support of all the concepts included in this project.