Politics: TEPJF-INE dispute rocks contest
The country’s highest electoral court has overruled the electoral authority in a highly controversial decision with broad implications for the July 1 elections and the eventual presidential transition. In a four-to-three decision the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) granted Jaime "El Bronco" Rodríguez Calderón ballot status as an independent presidential candidate after the National Electoral Institute (INE) had discovered widespread irregularities invalidating a clear majority of signatures collected on Rodriguez’s petitions, with most failing to correspond to registered voters and many others bearing the names of deceased individuals or people who had signed more than one petition.
The Tribunal’s decision was widely criticized by analysts and political figures, and it further undermines public trust in the electoral authorities, which was already running very low. More specifically, it adds to public fears that the government controls the electoral high court, especially in light of the incumbent party’s record of trying to splinter the opposition vote among as many candidates as possible, a tactic that proved successful in crucial gubernatorial contests in the past. Morena standard bearer and current presidential frontrunner Andrés Manuel López Obrador immediately accused the government of being behind the TEPJF decision, citing precisely that motive.
With the INE and TEPJF increasingly at loggerheads – including the court’s decision last year to uphold the PRI’s victory in the Coahuila gubernatorial elections after the INE had determined the official candidate had violated campaign finance laws – the credibility of the entire process is threatened, especially considering that parties have to appeal INE rulings to the tribunal. In the event of a conflict arising from a determination that López Obrador lost at the polls, plaintiffs would be justified in disqualifying the electoral tribunal as the arbitrator of last resort.
The perception that the government is willing to intervene by any means to support PRI presidential candidate José Antonio Meade has now been reinforced. The TEPJF’s image of partiality in favor of the government and the official candidate cannot be rectified in the short term. Some analysts have even pointed out that the Tribunal could annul the results if the PRI were to lose the election as a last resort by President Peña to prevent a victory by López Obrador, a particularly troubling scenario.
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