Sheinbaum Says Ex-INE Head Taddei Betrayed the People

President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said at her morning news conference at Palacio Nacional that former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador did back Guadalupe Taddei to lead the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE, Mexico’s national electoral institute). She repeated that Taddei “betrayed the people” and said she will submit her electoral reform again once the coming elections are over. The report, republished from the Informador site, dates the exchange to Monday, Nov. 9.

What did Sheinbaum say about López Obrador’s backing of Taddei?

Reporters played an audio clip at the conference in which López Obrador describes Taddei as a professional, honest and unlikely to act like Lorenzo Córdova, her predecessor at the INE. Asked about it, Sheinbaum said that “unfortunately” nobody knew what would happen two years later.

She repeated an earlier line of hers that Taddei came out of a group formed under Córdova. According to Sheinbaum, Taddei became president councillor of the Sonora electoral institute in 2014, when Córdova headed the INE council. She said Taddei may have been taken for an honest person, “but it turned out not.” She also said Taddei chose to step down from the post.

The report refers to corruption scandals around the INE without describing them. Sheinbaum said the Auditoría Superior de la Federación (the federal audit office), the Fiscalía General de la República (the attorney general’s office) and the Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera (the financial intelligence unit) are already carrying out proceedings. Her statement that anyone from any party, Morena in particular, who commits an act of corruption must be punished was quoted in the same report. These are statements by the president, and no findings were cited.

Who voted for Taddei?

Sheinbaum said every party except Movimiento Ciudadano approved the shortlist of five candidates (the quinteta) from which the new INE head was picked, and that Taddei was then chosen by lottery. She said it was not only Morena that voted for the shortlist. She also denied that Taddei is connected to Morena, as the report puts it.

What does she want changed at the INE?

Sheinbaum said the INE needs to be cleaned up. Although it is an autonomous body, she said, it should adopt procurement rules that avoid contracts going to monopolies or duopolies, which she said raise the cost of elections and breed corruption. She also expressed confidence that the council members will rise to the occasion and make everything transparent.

She mentioned that former Colombian president Gustavo Petro accused a company of being part of electoral fraud in the last Colombian election. According to Sheinbaum, the same company is in Mexico and printed the ballots for Coahuila in the most recent election there.

What would the new electoral reform include?

Speaking in the Salón Tesorería, Sheinbaum said her electoral reform was not approved, and that part of her “plan B” passed while another part did not. She said she will propose it again as soon as the elections pass. Her description of what it would do:

• Reduce the financing that political parties receive.
• Eliminate plurinominal seats (legislative seats assigned by party lists rather than direct vote) as they exist now.
• Increase citizen participation.
• Use fewer public resources on elections.
• Guarantee transparency in the vote.

She said some parties refused to put their plurinominal seats in question. She also said electoral council members should take a pay cut. The report does not give a date for the elections or for the new proposal.

What this means for voters

No change takes effect now. The report describes statements at a news conference: an accusation against a former INE head, a pledge to bring back a reform that failed in Congress, and a call for new procurement guidelines at an autonomous institute. Whether a new proposal passes will depend on the parties that blocked the earlier one.

Source: telegra.ph