Monday, November 26, 2007

 

Reform Proposals for New, Needed Mexican Election Laws

 

By Dr. José Enrique Vallarta Rodríguez

 

Once electoral reforms are enacted the adaptation of more ordinary interconnected legislation can take place.  The adjustment of general statements in the Constitution, to definitive rules of law, is a complex political-legislative-legal operation needed for democratic governance.  This requires not only talent, sensibility and courage, but too wisdom and calmness.  It is intense work that requires legal efficiency, social sensibility and parliamentary consensus.

 

In 1996, with and following the successful passage by consensus of reforms to Mexico’s election laws, there too were great expectations for related changes.  However, at the last moment the harmony was lost in the Mexican Congress as the various parties represented therein could not agree.  As a result, the consensus broke down when interconnected, or secondary, reforms were addressed.

 

The 2007 electoral reforms contemplate the inclusion of some 15 federal laws, with impacts that can be expected to fall into two categories: direct impacts, which emanate directly from the constitutional reforms; and secondary impacts that, while maintaining constitutionality, can be incorporated into the legal text.

 

Direct Impacts

 

More than a reformed law, due to the size and scope of the constitutional changes a new Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures (COFIPE) is now needed.  Originally passed in 1990, the COFIPE has been reformed 12 times.  In other words, reforms have been enacted on an average of every year and one half.

 

Some of the important areas and needs include the following.

 

New political parties and those that have lost their registration: Among the proposed modifications, one is to establish the requirement that political parties can be formed by citizens only, as specified in Article 9 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917.  As well, union organizations “and [others] with a different social purpose” must be kept from interfering in the creation of parties; whereas regulations must be abolished that ban any kind of corporate affiliation.

 

Intervention by election officials in the internal workings of political parties: A challenge for the forthcoming electoral law will be to express the new rules on the working order of political parties, and to reconcile these rules with the correlatives that may be introduced in procedural and organic laws by the judiciary with respect to the new legal authority of the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF).

 

Public financing in political campaigns: Sizable modifications are proposed in the formulas for public financing, and the regulation of expenditures by political parties in their internal processes.  And these regulations will have to define circumstances, specific cases and alternatives in order to avoid touchy debates between the political parties.

 

A new relationship between the political parties and the media: This is the nucleus of the new electoral reform and the general rules in this regard that are now in the Mexican Constitution.  The new COFIPE will have to specifically detail a new wide ranging, equitable, balanced and transparent relationship between the parties and the media.

 

The Comptroller General’s office of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE): As part of the new electoral legislation, the proposal is to give the IFE a comprehensive regulation.  As well, the rules governing the naming of the head of the IFE must not infringe on the powers of the Superior Auditor of the Federation, nor the Secretariat of Public Function, while at the same time they will have to give the IFE structure and confer powers in order for those responsible to adequately complete their duties.

 

The creation of a technical body for fiscal oversight: The formation of a new IFE agency to supervise and oversee party finances is proposed, independent from the General Council of the IFE, and with the needed administrative autonomy for its integration, working order and sanctioning powers.

 

The nullification of elections: The grounds for nullifying an election need to be spelled out.

 

Secondary Impacts

 

These refer to those areas and issues that must be taken into consideration in the legal framework of the secondary legislation, more out of political, operational and/or judicial necessity then due to the administrative regulations of the reformed Constitution, and they include the following.

 

Coalitions: Specific cases and circumstances will need to be spelled out; the large parties will stop subsidizing small parties with votes.  The law will be oriented towards the permanence of parties with genuine representation.

 

Electoral crimes and fiscal oversight: The proposal is to classify certain unlawful practices, which include: surpassing campaign spending limits; finances coming from prohibited sources and contributors; prohibited campaign advertising; ahead of time pre-campaigns; government intervention, or that of third party outsiders, in the electoral process; etc.  And some of these must be cause for the nullification of elections.  The proposal is for the Specialized Oversight Office on Electoral Crimes to change its assignment, powers and structure, the latter with a new procedure for the naming of its director.

 

For the first time in many years, we Mexicans now find ourselves with the historic possibility of new campaign and election reforms that will truly bring our electoral framework and system up-to-date.  And by doing so, by achieving this, Mexicans and Mexican democracy will be the beneficiaries.

 

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José Enrique Vallarta Rodríguez, a MexiData.info guest columnist, received his doctorate in Mexican Electoral Law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.  Mexico City-based, he has worked for the Federal Electoral Institute.  He can be reached via e-mail at vej_2006@yahoo.com.mx.

 

Translation MexiData.info