Overview
- At a forum of the Chamber of Deputies’ political-electoral commission, presidents of local electoral bodies argued that eliminating OPLES would risk electoral disruption and weaken federalism.
- Officials from Puebla, Jalisco, Mexico City and other states said their work does not duplicate the National Electoral Institute’s role, asserting that local logistics and proximity are essential for state and municipal contests.
- In 2024, OPLES reported registering more than 170,000 candidacies, printing over 228 million ballots, installing 2,026 local councils with about 13,000 citizen supervisors, handling over 12,000 complaints, and running PREP and counts for roughly 19,000 offices.
- Speakers warned that shifting functions to a single national authority could create a costly, oversized bureaucracy with reduced efficiency and weaker responsiveness to local political contexts.
- OPLES leaders noted current constraints such as limited operating margins and budgets set by state congresses, while the commission’s chair said the coming reform is intended to be federalist.