The Novelties of These Elections: Congresses of All 32 States
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Overview of the Mexican Electoral System Page 2 Concurrent Federal and Local Elections 2021 Contents • The Electoral Roll • Photo Voting Card • Voters’ Lists • Updating and Filtering • General Political Parties’ Law (LGPP, for its abbreviation in Spanish) • Differentiated jurisdictions • Rules for the constitution and registry of political parties: • National Political Parties • Local Political Parties • Rights, prerogatives and duties of the political parties • Reasons for the loss of registration • Complementary relevant information • By their members • Por simpathisers • Self-funding • Financial profits Page 3 Overview of the Mexican Electoral System • Pre-campaigns • Inter-campaigns • Campaigns • 2021Schedule • Public funding • Political Parties • Independent candidacies • Free access to the radio and the television • Ordinary or non-electoral periods • ELectoral Periods • Ceilings to campaign expenditures • Forbiddance to broadcast government publicity during campaign periods • Debates organised by electoral authorities • Debates organised by the media • internet voting • Electoral observers • Foreign visitors • Basic references • Installation of polling stations • Scrutiny and tallying ertificates • Invalid Votes • Polling stations files Page 4 Concurrent Federal and Local Elections 2021 • Information sources on voting results and tendencies • Institutional • Preliminary electoral results programme (PREP, by its acronym in Spanish • Quick counts • Non institutional • District tallies • New scrutiny and tallying process of the votes of a polling station • Total recount of the votes at the district’s polling stations • Additional information about district tallies • State tallies (non applicable for the 2021 elections) • Circumscription tally • Of the federal and local elections • Accountability • Integral Oversight System (SIF, by its acronym in Spanish) • External sources: • Main SIF’s components • Deadlines for concluding the campaigns’ oversight process Page 5 Overview of the Mexican Electoral System Page 6 Concurrent Federal and Local Elections 2021 INTRODUCTION On 6 June federal elections will take place throughout Mexico, while its 32 states will also hold local elections. The number of Mexican citizens authorized to exercise their right to vote will be around 95 million, which would represent an increase of almost 5.5 million compared to the last elections in 2018. Therefore, it is expected that around 160,000 voting places will be installed throughout the national territory, a figure that would significantly exceed those installed in 2018. More than 21,300 positions of popular election will be at stake, including the 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, in addition to the ownership of the Executive Power in 15 entities of the country. The figure also exceeds by more than two thousand the charges that were disputed in 2018. Of this magnitude is the challenge and logistics faced by the INE and the electoral bodies of the 32 states. The INE’s International Affairs Unit has prepared this document with the purpose of offering a panoramic overview of the most important aspects that make up the Mexican electoral organization, as well as some of the substantive programs of the Institute, that will be running arond the 2021 Federal and local concurrent elections. Page 7 Overview of the Mexican Electoral System Page 8 Concurrent Federal and Local Elections 2021 1 On Sunday 6 June 2021, federal elections will take place throughout Mexico, while its 32 states will also hold local elections. Since the Presidency of the Republic and the 128 seats of the Senate were renewed in 2018, new elections for those posts will only happen in 2024. Hence, federal elections in 2021 are exclusively to elect the 500 members of the Lower Chamber. As for local elections, various offices will be renewed. The following tables show, from complementary perspectives, the types of local elections that will be held in the 32 states Renewal of: Amount of States States Executive and Legislative 15 Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chihuahua, Colima, branches, and Municipal Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacán, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Querétaro, San Luis authorities Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora and Zacatecas. Legislative Branch and 13 Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Ciudad de México, Estado de México, Guanajuato, Municipal authorities Jalisco Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Yucatán. Only the Legislative Branch 2 Durango and Hidalgo. Only Municipal authorities 2 Coahuila y Quintana Roo. Renewal of: Amount of States States Governorships 15 Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chihuahua, Colima, Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacán, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora and Zacatecas. Congresos Locales 30 Excepto Coahuila and Quintana Roo Autoridades Municipales 30 Excepto Durango and Hidalgo. Page 9 Overview of the Mexican Electoral System The novelties of these elections: congresses of all 32 states. In the case of federal elections, INE’s General Council has the power to Mechanisms against gender-based political violence reject the registration of candidacies that fail to comply with the principle of gender parity. As part of extensive amendments to several laws and regulations—passed by the Congress in The agreements that INE—as part of its April 2020—to advance the access of women to a functions—had already issued during previous violence-free life, various provisions were included electoral processes to guarantee the compliance in the electoral legislation to counter gender-based and effectiveness of such precepts have been ratified political violence against women. One of the most for the 2021 elections. The greatest novelty for the relevant refers to the requirement that senator and upcoming elections is that the General Council representative hopefuls ought to not have been passed an agreement that forces political parties condemned for the crime of gender-based political to comply with this principle when nominating the violence against women. In accordance, the General candidates to the 15 governorships in contest, which Council of the National Electoral Institute (INE) means it was extended to unipersonal posts and passed an agreement that—in consonance with the requires that political parties nominate a maximum denominated “3-of-3 Declaration Against Gender- of eight candidates of one gender. Based Political Violence”—established additional Measures that guarantee the elections’ impartiality, requirements for candidates to be registered: a) no equity, and certainty conviction for domestic or family violence; b) no conviction for sexual offences, or crimes against In December 2020, INE’s General Council exercised sexual freedom or criminal sexual contact; or, c) no its powers to strengthen, supplement, or specify alimony debt. provisions on the electoral law by passing three agreements containing explicit measures that—as Likewise, in compliance with the new provisions, a whole—are meant to guarantee the impartiality, in the eve of the current electoral process INE equity, and certainty of the elections. These are passed: colloquially referred as agreements to secure a”level • A regulation to process complaints and field” during the electoral competition: accusations of gender-based political violence. • One refers to the use of social programmes. • The bases for the construction, functioning, • Another, to government propaganda. update, and upkeep of a national registry of • The third, to public services. persons penalised for gender-based political violence that shall include information of Re-election of federal representatives infringers. It shall be publicly available and be accessible at INE’s website, where it can be The 2014 amendment allowing federal sorted nationally or by state. representatives to be re-elected for up to three consecutive terms in addition to the initial one— that is, four periods in total—comes into effect. Gender parity Despite the fact that an overwhelming majority The 2014 constitutional and legal reforms of the legislators who currently make up the Lower resulted in an electoral law that compels political House (436 out of 500), expressed their intention to parties to further gender parity in the nomination aspire to re-election, at the end of the candidacies’ of candidates to both the Congress of the Union registration process, only 213 of them reached its (relative majority and proportional representation purpose. senators and legislative representatives) and the Page 10 Concurrent Federal and Local Elections 2021 Appointment of indigenous candidates The electoral law does not include reserved seats that guarantee the representation of distinct social groups or sectors in the composition of the Congress of the Union. However, INE’s General Council adopted an agreement for the 2018 federal elections by which political parties were required to appoint indigenous candidates in 13 of the 300 single-member districts used for the conformation of the Lower Chamber. This guaranteed the representation of indigenous communities through 13 of the 500 seats of that Chamber. In an effort to further this kind of affirmative action to benefit indigenous communities, INE’s General Council passed a new agreement that requires political parties to increase the number of indigenous candidates from 13 to 21 of the 300 single-member districts, and that—to strengthen gender parity—11 of those 21 tickets be of women. This, in principle, extends the opportunities of political representation