On 14 November, Mexico’s national electoral institute (INE) announced that it will present a legal challenge against a reduction in its funding under the 2022 federal budget.
Analysis:
The 2022 federal budget, which was approved in full by the lower chamber of deputies on 14 November, would cut the INE’s budget by approximately 20% in a year in which the electoral body is likely to need increased funding to conduct a recall election sought by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The INE is now warning that the budget cut could jeopardise that recall vote, with INE president Lorenzo Córdova declaring that it will take legal actions to protect its funding. This dispute is the latest twist in long-running tensions between López Obrador and Mexico’s electoral authorities, whose overhaul the government has previously mooted.
- Córdova stated on 14 November that the INE will “take the legal actions to which we have recourse” against the 2022 federal budget, which would slash the INE’s funding by nearly M$5bn (US$243.8m). Córdova warned that “this is a reduction of nearly a quarter of the operating budget for which the INE had planned.” He added that“it is the fourth consecutive year that the chamber of deputies has reduced the resources needed by the INE, without having presented technical or financial evidence to explain the cuts.”
- Córdova said the budget cut “jeopardises the recall [presidential] election” that President López Obrador is seeking. López Obrador believes that a successful recall vote would enable him to shore up his popular mandate in the final three years of his six-year term, after suffering setbacks in the midterm federal elections.
- The López Obrador government has long been accused of seeking to undermine the INE, calling for a sweeping overhaul of the electoral body. Those tensions escalated further in October, when the INE was authorised to investigate the president’s brother, Pío López Obrador, in relation to alleged illegal financing on behalf of the ruling left-wing Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena).
Looking Ahead: A legal ruling forcing the government to increase the INE’s funding could amplify existing tensions between the executive and the country’s electoral institutions.