The suitability assessment for aspiring INE directors begins today

Alma E. Munoz

Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday March 11, 2023, p. 8

The technical evaluation committee detailed yesterday the security measures applied in the knowledge exam for electoral advisers. The researcher Ernesto Isunza stressed that on Monday the 6th –one day before the test– only two people knew all the questions and decided that 80 items would be applied. He said the exam – which 203 people passed, 102 men and 101 women – was never printed or copies circulated among commission members.

The reagents, he explained, were formulated by four working groups, with contributions from specialists and committee members, corresponding to four subjects – constitutional, governmental, electoral and human rights.

The questions were reviewed by a person from the committee who was not part of any of these groups and the questions were captured on a server without an Internet connection or the Chamber of Deputies network. They were loaded onto a Moodle program platform, under the protection of the evaluation committee in a sealed cubicle. The day of the exam, at 7 in the morning, they moved the server to the plenary room. The staff of the Information Technology Department (DTI) connected it to a network set up exclusively for the test and to the tablets that 508 people used to answer it.

For the presentation of the items, they applied five additional security measures: the questions and answers were assigned randomly, so it was different for each person; the applicants were accommodated as they entered the plenary and not from predestined places and no one, except the members of the committee, had access to mobile phones. Applicants left their devices, such as cell phones or smart watches, in the filter.

At the end of the test, under the supervision of the committee, DTI personnel generated the digital report of the program and printed the consecutive list of pages and names of applicants with the number of hits they obtained. The 508 exams were also printed, with the answers of the supporters and the correct ones. Each page was signed by members of the committee. The tests were digitized and thus delivered to each applicant.

Evangelina Hernández explained that initially a person who had registered with female sex and male gender identity was included in the female list, but when consulted clarified that it should be considered masculinealthough it did not reach the minimum score established for men, 65 hits.

For the third stage of the process includes three people who identify as non-binary, one trans woman and two who registered as female and did not specify their gender identity.

Today, as part of a comprehensive process that includes the exam, the suitability assessment begins, consisting of a thorough review of the curriculum and supporting documents; statement of reasons and essay on the state function of the National Electoral Institute (INE) and its contribution to democracy.

The committee announced the opening of a space on the microsite for citizens to send them information -with supporting documents- about the applicants, in accordance with the principles of open parliament. And there will be another one, until the 15th, so that they can ask questions, but addressed to all the applicants.

They go to the next stage, among others, Jaime Castañeda Salas, adviser to the Legislative Branch, linked to Morena, and Bertha María Alcalde Luján, commissioner of Sanitary Operation of Cofepris.