Noting that the Chamber of Deputies reduced for this year by more than 26% the budget requested by the National Electoral Institute (INE) without any reason, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) invalidated the budget for the INE, and ordered the federal Deputies to issue a new one within 30 days.
The ministers of the First Chamber unanimously approved invalidating the decree issuing the Expenditure Budget of the Federation for him fiscal year 2022 published on November 29, 2021, specifically article 13, section II, of Branch 22.
Ministers Norma Lucía Piña, Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo, Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá, Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena and Margarita Ríos voted for this determination.
Minister Ana Margarita Ríos Farjat, president of the First Chamber, proposed that the issue be turned over to the full court of the supreme courtbut the rest of the ministers considered that the First Chamber had jurisdiction to resolve the matter.
“The Chamber of Deputies must analyze and determine in a public session, what corresponds to the draft Expenditure Budget of the National Electoral Institute for fiscal year 2022, within a period of 30 business days from the date of notification”, ordered the First Room.
The highest court said that if the authorization of additional resources is deemed appropriate, the Chamber of Deputies It must take the necessary measures to make the effective transfer of resources to that Institute, or else, in the event that the decision is negative, present a reinforced and technically rigorous reasoning for its decision.
The First Chamber clarified that the fact that the revocation process of the mandate of the elected President of the Republic for the 2018-2024 constitutional period, whose resources for its exercise were provided for in the 2022 draft budget, cannot be sufficient reason for the Chamber of Deputies to decide, in compliance with what was ordered in this matter, to deny the resources originally requested by the National Electoral Institute.
It also established that although the Chamber of Deputies has the exclusive power to modify the amount originally requested by the INE, this had to be exercised through the application of a standard of reinforced motivation that accounted for the objective and justified reasons for making a reduction. The foregoing, since the budgetary autonomy of the autonomous constitutional bodies and, ultimately, the protection of the political-electoral rights of citizens are at stake.
It should be noted that currently the Chamber of Deputies is in a recess period, so the Court’s resolution must be analyzed by the Political Coordination Board to determine if it requests to convene a special period of sessions through the Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union.
Most of the councilors INE I expected this ruling from the Court, so that in subsequent budgetary exercises, and in view of the 2023-2024 federal election that includes the renewal of the Presidency of the Republic, there is clarity about the resources that must be provided to the electoral body to comply with with its constitutional responsibility to organize the elections.
“It has been worth defending the autonomy and powers of the INE, as well as going before the SCJN claiming the validity of the rule of law”, stated the counselor Ciro Murayama.
The @SCJN gives reason to @INEMexico.
The camera @Mx_Diputados compromised the powers of the INE by applying a budget cut without motivation for 2022.
A resolution that avoids the arbitrariness that affects the powers of the autonomous constitutional bodies. https://t.co/TURkgaEHjT
— Ciro Murayama (@CiroMurayamaINE)
June 1, 2022
On December 7, 2021, the National Electoral Institute presented at the SCJN a constitutional controversy against the Decree of the Budget of Expenditures of the Federation for fiscal year 2022, published last November 29 in the Official Gazette of the Federation. In said decree, the Chamber of Deputies resolved, among other aspects, to apply a cut of 4,913 million pesos to the budget originally requested by the INE.
The electoral body considered that said cut lacked any motivation or justification in the budget decree, in addition to preventing it from fully exercising its constitutional powers, particularly to carry out the exercise of revocation of mandate, for which it required 3,830 million weights to be carried out.
“Thus, with the cut, the Chamber of Deputies left the INE without funds to fully comply with that obligation expressly indicated in the Magna Carta,” the electoral body said at the time.
The INEin preparing its budget for 2022, included an amount as a precautionary budget, both for carrying out the revocation of the mandate and for a new popular consultation.
rrg/kg