Córdova replied that the electoral bodies are not there to submit to any power or government.

Lorenzo Córdova, president councillor of the National Electoral Institute (INE), pointed out that in no democratic country are members elected to autonomous bodies as proposed yesterday by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and stressed that the raison d'être of electoral bodies is not to be at the service of any power or any government.

A day after the head of the Executive announced that he will send an Electoral Reform initiative so that electoral counselors and magistrates are elected by the people, Córdova Vianello emphasized that putting these officials to the vote is to politicize the role that by definition must be impartial.

In an interview with Grupo Imagen, the chairman said that not making decisions at the content of political actors is part of autonomy and independence and added that this is what the INE and the Electoral Tribunal are trying to exercise.

He stressed that although some political groups would like the Institute and the Tribunal to be “submissive”, these autonomous bodies are aimed at maintaining a democratic balance in the country. “Our job is not to be comfortable for anyone and that is what independence lies in.”

Despite the pressure against the institute in charge, I believe that this is not the only time that a government tries to subject the other State agencies to its will and stressed that Prime Minister Boris Johnson currently proposed a reform in order to exercise greater controls over the electoral body in the United Kingdom.

Córdova made it clear that after winning the 2018 election, AMLO praised the Electoral Tribunal and recognized the INE's impartiality. He added that the Executive “applauded” when the Institute made the decision to deny registration as a political party to “Mexico Libre”, the organization that was promoted by Margarita Zavala and former President Felipe Calderón.

Regarding the latter case, he stressed that six months later he applied the same rules to deny the candidacy to two candidates of Morena, including Félix Salgado Macedonio, then the President of the Republic went against the councillors. However, he considered that, like any political actor, when an electoral decision is not favorable to López Obrador, he attacks these institutions, even calling them “conspirators against democracy”.

With regard to the attacks against the INE, he stressed that this is an unprecedented situation in 30 years of history and recalled that criminal complaints against six electoral directors to the Office of the Prosecutor remain open and are a clear attempt to threaten that body.

Regarding the announced Electoral Reform, he said that Morena is within his right to present it, but recalled that the Law on the Revocation of Mandate was approved by that party and its allies as it had a majority in Congress and stressed that they are now dissatisfied with the application of those rules.

The Executive Branch's argument for pushing this reform is based on the setback that the Electoral Tribunal gave to the “decree” that removed restrictions on public officials to disseminate the Mandate Revocation.

How is an electoral tribunal going to be against the dissemination of a consultation, a plebiscite, a referendum? it's a paradox, it's contradictory. It's an absurdity, besides being undemocratic,” López Obrador emphasized in his morning conference.

Lorenzo Córdova considered that the presidential proposal, at least in its announcement, is atypical because of the 217 countries in the world that organize democratic elections in none of them are electoral officials selected by popular vote and stressed that the nature of these positions is of a technical nature, that is, to apply the relevant laws.

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