Closing of campaigns and massive events, what must candidates comply with?

the fatal accident at Jorge Álvarez Máynez’s rally in Nuevo León set off alarms about massive events in electoral processes.

Heading to closing of campaigns, Political analysts and legal experts shared for EL DEBATE that the Electoral Law establishes some articles to prevent risk situations related to mobility, although it does not specify infrastructure security or cases related to the environment.

Laws

Bernardino Esparza Martínez, expert in electoral laws, explained that this is found in the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures, Chapter V, articles 242 and 245.

In particular, 245 establishes that in marches or meetings, candidates or parties must make their itinerary known to the competent authority to guarantee free development.

But who regulates them? Javier Santiago Castillo, an expert in political science and former advisor to the IFE, clarified that in the case of the organization of the party events, the INE does not participate. He explained that the only thing he does is verify the number of people and the possible expenses incurred at the event, which includes inspection. Like, for example, a massive distribution of water.

It does not have the authority to do anything else, for example, supervising that a temple is in good condition is not the responsibility of the INE, he explained.

He considered that this responsibility should fall on the company in charge of the temple; the political party that hires, which should supervise that it is in good condition and local Civil Protection.

Town councils

In turn, the former IFE councilor added that the authority responsible for regulating marches and rallies on public roads are the city councils. However, he acknowledged that if they are not notified and a candidate holds a rally or event in the streets or squares, it is very difficult for public forces to be used to suspend or prevent it.

He indicated that in the past it was very common for parties to ask for permission to carry out any public event. And sometimes, the authority sometimes denied that permission, especially if they were from opposition parties.

But now, if they don’t do it, if they don’t notify, there are really no sanctions, there is a gap in the law. When it is an electoral campaign, to an extreme degree the municipal provisions for obstruction of public roads could be applied, but that is not done, he explained.

Closing of campaigns

Héctor Ponce, political analyst and columnist in EL DEBATE, added that with the campaign closing weekUntil May 29, organizers and Civil Protection must be vigilant so that an incident like the one in Nuevo León does not occur in Sinaloa or in any other entity.

He considered that it is a lesson that must be learned and be alert.

The rallies have to continue being held because it is very difficult to reach ten thousand people in a single day if done house to house, which can be achieved with a massive event, he explained.

Bells

In this context, Roberto Soltero, political analyst, added that the parties use massive events as a way to show their political muscle, but he also considered that it is counterproductive due to cases of transportation or facilitation of mobility, as they now call the transportation of people.

Not everyone votes for the party that invited them and took them to the event, so it is just a form for the photo, it is an image for the photo, and they must be careful so that these situations are not repeated, he shared.

Regarding the Máynez rally in particular, Roberto Soltero said that it will be a lesson that the organizers and those responsible in charge of logistics must learn. It will be appropriate to carry out “checklist” tasks, “but here we already saw that that did not happen, unfortunately,” he explained.

Since 2014 I joined the newspaper EL DEBATE as a reporter. That year I worked in the Mexico-World news section for the printed edition in Culiacán. Later, I worked as a local reporter in Guasave, where I covered the current affairs, social and police sections. I entered the digital section as a web reporter for the Soy Carmín portal at soycarmin.com and later I was editor of the En Pareja portal with the page enpareja.com. On both sites I wrote about topics related to the lifestyle of women, couples and families. Since 2017 I have been a reporter for the Investigation Unit for EL DEBATE, focusing on issues of transparency and the fight against corruption, social networks and public image; the agricultural and fishing sector, health, economy, legislation, indigenous people, poverty and housing. Prior to my foray into the written press, I was part of Radio Sinaloa as host of the youth program “Poder Joven Radio”. I have attended national workshops on security for journalists, the new criminal justice system, the Mexican electoral system, management and analysis of urban mobility and urban planning, editorial design and social networks. I also have a degree in Graphic Design and Multimedia from the Universidad del Desarrollo Profesional and I have an academic specialty in Editorial Design.

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