Electoral violence in Mexico is worrying

Luis Fernández, technical secretary of the National Agreement for Electoral Integrity (ANIE), pointed out that more than 50 murdered candidates have been reported since this process began, this only in regards to candidates who want to compete for a political position.

“The number of candidates and people related to the electoral process who have been murdered is enormous,” he said. He considered that the intervention of organized crime and this violence dilutes and lowers political participation: “it is normal that fewer people want to compete for an election if their lives are at risk.”

He warned that this also inhibits electoral political participation on election day, hence There is a great commitment from civil society organizations, academia, Private Initiative and electoral authorities to encourage more people to vote and so that the will of the citizens can be expressed at the polls.

“It is one of the basic principles of our democracy and it is greatly affected by the violence that we are experiencing in the country,” he commented.

He referred to the great polarization that currently exists in the country and mentioned that this is natural during the electoral process, but that It also happens between the powers of the Union, between the levels of government, even within the same institutions.which has generated a climate of great division and tension in the elections.

He considered that, as a consolidated democracy, it would seek to resolve these tensions through dialogue, as a first instance, to build consensus and resolve conflicts, and then the electoral courts, but today they are oversaturated due to this inability to resolve through dialogue.

Fernández said that the expectation of the number of challenges that will come in this election for the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) will exceed 18 or even 20 thousand challenges. He mentioned that fewer magistrates perform this task, since there should be seven and there are only 5, since The Senate has not fulfilled its obligation and responsibility to appoint the two pending people to fully integrate the federal Courtand the same thing happens in the locals, who operate with fewer profiles than they should have, despite facing the largest election in the history of the country.

In this year’s federal election, 20,708 positions will be voted on, 629 of which are federal and 20,079 local. There are 128 senatorial offices, 500 federal deputies, a presidency of the Republic, as well as 1,098 seats in state Congresses, 9 governorships, 1,802 municipal presidencies, 1,975 union offices, 431 auxiliary positions and 14,764 council offices.

In this sense, he pointed out that the National Agreement for Electoral Integrity has the objective of monitoring conduct and behavior of political actors, but also of electoral authorities. The idea is to monitor how political parties and candidates behave, document and report.