Politics: New TRIFE Key to Electoral Legitimacy
Although Mexico has made great strides in building a democratic electoral system over the past 40 years, problems remain – for example, extensive use of illegal campaign funding, ineffective regulations on media access, widespread vote buying – that undercut the legitimacy of the elections and prompt efforts to overturn voting outcomes.
The ultimate arbiter in all electoral disputes is the Federal Electoral Tribunal (Trife), whether on the federal or local level. Its importance to the electoral system has greatly increased, but it has by no means been bereft of controversy as some of its most important rulings have been strongly criticized by political parties and specialists in electoral issues, and the court has frequently overturned decisions by the National Electoral Institute. There are suspicions as to whether it has acted in an impartial manner.
By the end of October the Senate must replace all of the Tribunal’s seven presiding magistrates. This is an opportunity for the Trife to re-emerge with its legitimacy renewed. The odds of that will largely depend on the transparency with which the seven are chosen and whether they are seen as people who are independent of the interests of the government, the parties and the television networks.
There is a great deal at stake, including a list of pending matters, perhaps the most pressing being whether to strip the PVEM of its registration for repeatedly violating electoral laws during the 2015 midterms. The Tribunal must also serve as the final arbiter of next year’s state elections, including the crucial gubernatorial contest in the State of Mexico, and above all in the 2018 presidential election. Given that this last contest is likely to be intensely competitive due to the extent to which the vote is fragmented, and should the many deficiencies and loopholes in current electoral regulations not be corrected by then, there will be hundreds of complaints and challenges made to the elections. The existence of a reliable and legitimate electoral arbiter is an indispensable prerequisite for avoiding any question of the legitimacy of the next president of the Republic.
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