Overview
- Presidents of 17 state electoral institutes presented operational and constitutional arguments in the Chamber of Deputies opposing the elimination or absorption of OPLES into the INE.
- They warned that centralization would be a blow to federalism, increase costs, and create a larger, less efficient bureaucracy without delivering savings.
- Officials cited 2024 workloads including over 170,000 candidacies registered, 228 million ballots printed, 2,026 local councils installed, more than 12,000 complaints handled, and counts for over 19,000 offices.
- OPLES leaders rejected claims of duplicated functions with the INE, stressing proximity to local contexts and advances in areas such as gender, indigenous and migrant inclusion, and technological innovation.
- Commission president Víctor Hugo Lobo said the reform to be debated starting in February will pursue a federalist approach, with deputies set to review any initiative that arrives from the executive.