Mexico City.- Members of the Citizen Observatory, organized by academics, electoral and legal experts, urged the INE and the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) to respect, abide by and enforce the constitutional norms that limit overrepresentation in the Chamber of Deputies.
They also requested a public hearing from electoral councillors and magistrates to explain the reasons why, in this matter, these provisions contained in the Constitution should prevail.
“We, the members of the Citizen Observatory, respectfully urge the eleven counselors of the General Council of the National Electoral Institute and the five judges of the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation to respect, abide by and enforce the meaning and purpose of the constitutional norms that order the allocation of votes to be based on the vote of the citizens and limit over-representation in the Chamber of Deputies,” it was urged in a statement.
The statement was signed by Jorge Alcocer, Diego Valades, Jose Ramon Cossio Diaz, Jaime Cardenas, Maria Marvan Laborde, Pedro Salazar Ugarte, Elba M. Arjona Ortiz, Rosa Maria Cano, Morelos Canseco Gomez and Carlos A. Flores Vargas.
In addition, Rodrigo Alfonso Morales Manzanares, Arturo Nunez Jimenez, Jose Jesus Orozco Henriquez, Paula Sofia Vasquez, Jose Luis Vazquez Alfaro and Alma R. Zamora Fernandez.
“We request a public hearing from the counselors and judges to present our arguments in favor of respecting the meaning and purposes of the aforementioned constitutional norms,” they indicated.
In the statement on the integration of the next 66th Legislature in the Chamber of Deputies, they indicated that, since 1996, Article 54 of the Constitution contains a set of rules to prevent political parties and electoral coalitions from being overrepresented in San Lázaro.
For this purpose, they stressed, it is established that the difference between the percentage of effective votes and the percentage of seats in relation to the total of the Chamber, should not be greater than eight percentage points.
They pointed out that although the legal reforms after 2007 removed from the electoral law the reference to coalitions as subjects bound by said limitation, this does not invalidate or weaken the constitutional rule and the value it protects.
They recalled that this was determined by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) when resolving an action of unconstitutionality promoted by Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 1998, then national president of the PRD, against the overrepresentation established in the electoral legislation of Quintana Roo.
“In the ruling, approved unanimously, the highest court determined that ‘the principle of proportional representation as a guarantor of political pluralism has the following primary objectives: 1. The participation of all political parties in the composition of the legislative body, provided that they have a certain representativeness. 2. That each party achieves within the Congress or corresponding legislature a representation approximate to the percentage of its vote. 3. Avoid a high degree of over-representation of the dominant parties,” they detailed.
They added that the ruling also shed light on the interpretation of constitutional norms, by establishing that proportionality in electoral matters, more than a principle, constitutes “a system composed of general bases aimed at effectively guaranteeing plurality in the composition of legislative bodies.”
From this ruling, they indicated, derived, at the proposal of the then reporting minister, Olga Sánchez Cordero, today a Morena senator, the Jurisprudence Thesis P/J 70/98 entitled “Electoral matters. The principle of proportional representation as a system to guarantee plurality in the integration of legislative bodies.”
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