For not having delivered pre-camp expense reports, the INE General Council again sanctioned the brunette Félix Salgado Macedonio with the cancellation of his registration as a candidate for Guerrero’s government and ordered the party to replace him as standard-bearer within 48 hours.
The punishment was the same for Morena’s candidate for Michoacán’s government, Raúl Morón, although, in this case, the INE granted a period of up to 5 days for the party to make the replacement of candidacy.
You may be interested: Key points to understand what the Court ruled about Salgado and what the INE will discuss
In both cases, sanctions were passed with a closed difference of 6 votes in favour and 5 against.
The session of the General Council took place in an atmosphere of pressure from the leadership of Morena and Salgado Macedonio, who, accompanied by his followers, has been betting for several days outside the National Electoral Institute to demand that he be returned to his candidacy, handing on direct threats to the counselors.
“This INE, these counselors and election advisers, will not be threatened even by direct and openly illegal threats,” said the President of the Institute, Lorenzo Córdova, during the general council meeting.
Election advisers Ciro Murayama, Adriana Favela, Uuc-kib Espadas and Martín Faz also spoke out against pressures and threats directed by morenistas, after Salgado Macedonio threatened to “find” in their homes the counselors who sanctioned their registration, threatened a political trial of the electoral referee and suggested that, if he does not appear on the ballot, he will prevent the election.
“I disendo and oppose siege and intimidation. And the best way to repudiate these authoritarian practices is not by giving in to them,” Murayama said.
“I oppose siege and intimidation, and the best way to repudiate these authoritarian practices is not by giving in to them”: @CiroMurayamaINE, advisor to the INE. pic.twitter.com/yPrWaFEvBr
— Political Animal (@Pajaropolitico) April 14, 2021
“The fault is not of the one who sees and sanctions it, but of the one who commits it. And, of course, there is no place for him to threaten to impede democratic exercise at the ballot box if the claims of the one who inflicted the law are not granted. That’s authoritarianism without nuance.”
.@lorenzocordovav reiterated that the @INEMexico is against whoever violates the law, whoever it is.
“To this INE, these counselors and election advisers are not going to be frightened even by direct and openly illegal threats,” he said. pic.twitter.com/lm7Z8YqRtS
— Political Animal (@Pajaropolitico) April 14, 2021
The General Council again imposed the cancellation of Salgado and Morón’s candidacy after the federal Electoral Court ordered him last Friday to re-evaluate the sanctions that both applicants would be creditors for omitting to submit reports of pre-campaign expenses and income. Morenists may challenge the decision again before the High Chamber.
The INE considered that these applicants did not make a willingness to submit their reports at any procedural stage and, on the contrary, sought to circumvent the electoral arbitrator and circumvent his obligation to transparent the lawful origin of his appeals.
In Salgado’s case, the INE trial was more severe as the guerrilla was the winner of his party’s internal selection process after making a pre-campaign that he denied and also submitted a zeros expense report, even though the electoral referee found that the contender eorged at least 19,872 pesos in his pre-camp.
“It is unquestionable that the uncoated subject conducted intentional conduct by not presenting the pre-campaign report, knowing that it was illegal, with the intention of appearing a situation that is not real, trying to deceive the electoral management authority with the purpose of achieving a benefit, to make it believe that the obligations of law are fulfilled, encouraged by the benefit of such conduct, which implies acceptance of its consequences and this allows this electoral authority to sanction it, in particular that, although expenses were detected, the infringing person submitted a zero report in order to continue deceiving the electoral management authority,” the resolution states.
For the Morenista representative, Sergio Gutiérrez, it is disproportionate to sanction to cancel Salgado Macedonio’s candidacy for not having reported an expense that he described as “small”.
“Pretending to cancel morena’s candidacy for the government of Guerrero for 19 thousand 872 pesos, President Lorenzo Córdova, is disgraceful, and you will carry it in history, you will carry it in history with this fact, because it is unacceptable, unsustainable, disproportionate, illegal, absurd, that by that small amount it intends to cancel a candidacy for a candidate of a political party just for profiling towards triumph,” said the federal deputy.
They make their way to Walton
In revaluing the sanctions imposed on aspiring Morenists, the General Council decided only to impose an economic fine of 217,200 pesos on Luis Walton, who – along with Pablo Amílcar Sandoval and Adela Román – also participated in the internal contest for the candidacy for Guerrero’s government.
With this resolution, the electoral referee opened the door for Morena to replace Salgado Macedonio with Walton in the candidacy.
The INE found that, while the ex-mayor of Acapulco and former announcer failed to deliver his pre-campaign expenditure report, he was not the winner of the internal selection process and did show a willingness to be audited, as he reported much greater expenditure than found by the election management authority itself.
“In this regard, in the case of the infringing conduct deployed by C. Luis Walton Aburto, consisting in the omission of submitting his report of income and pre-campaign expenses – the consequence of which could be the restriction of his right to be voted in collision with certainty and transparency in accountability-, in accordance with the circumstances analysed in the particular case, it is possible to argue that, since that was not the candidate no longer no longer nominee nominee for the post of Governor of Guerrero, the effect on the legal assets of certainty and transparency in accountability is not proportionate to restricting the citizen in comment on his right to be voted on, especially that the citizen in comment , at least, intended to transparent the resources used,” the resolution states.
The representative of the PRD, Angel Avila, requested the General Council to also be sanctioned with the impediment of registering as a candidate, since, in his view, he incured the same fault as Salgado.
The advisers who endorsed the sanction against Salgado Macedonio were Dania Ravel, Lorenzo Córdova, Ciro Murayama, Jaime Rivera, Carla Humphrey and Claudia Zavala.
While Adriana Favela, Norma Irene de la Cruz, Uuc-kib Espadas, José Roberto Ruiz and Martin Faz Mora spoke out against the project.
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