Politics: Poll shows success of the fight against Plan B, which suffers setbacks as new INE councilors assume their posts
One of the most significant aspects of the latest GEA-ISA quarterly survey of registered voters was that it showed the extent to which the efforts of the INE under former Institute President Lorenzo Cordova, civic organizations and opposition parties have succeeded in winning over the vast majority of citizens to their opposition to President López Obrador’s "Plan B" electoral reforms and their defense of the autonomous electoral authority. Roughly 70% of respondents who said they support the current government and those who support the opposition concurred that AMLO’s reform was designed to exert control over the electoral authorities, and by similar margins they agreed that the reform would affect the National Electoral Institute’s capacity for organizing elections. A record 74% of all those polled said the institute was properly doing its job. In short, the electoral authority enjoys a very solid level of social support that surpasses President López Obrador’s approval ratings, a political asset for the job INE can do throughout the 2024 electoral process.
It is still unclear how the institute will perform with the four new councilors who joined this month, including new institute-installed Councilor President Guadalupe Taddei. Two of the new councilors have close family and/or political ties with government officials or Morena party leaders, sparking suspicions that they could act favorably toward the 4T camp; but the other two have a professional history that would suggest they would conduct themselves with impartiality. All four have experience in the electoral regulatory field, especially in state electoral bodies.
Regardless of how close to or independent of the government each of the four new members will prove to be, they will be joining an institution whose most important decisions require a majority of eight of the eleven councilors. This will serve as a factor of balance and negotiation. In addition, there will be an external eye, both from society and the opposition parties, watching over the performance of the new INE president, who will have to act with intelligence and legality if she wants to maintain the institution’s social prestige and the confidence of all parties in the impartiality of the arbitrator.
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