On April 12, Pablo Gómez, head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), told the INE about the low level of participation recorded at the Mandate Revocation Day on Sunday, April 10, and accused him of not informing the nearly 93 million voters that voting was compulsory, as stated in the Mexican Constitution in article 36, adding that failure to do so constitutes a sanction as set out in article 38.
The right to universal, free and secret voting is a fundamental guarantee for every Mexican, and although the constitutional text indicates that voting is also an obligation for citizens of the Republic, voting is not regulated by law, the obligatory nature of suffrage and is understood as a “civic obligation”.
Both the Magna Carta and the General Law on Electoral Institutions and Procedures (Legipe) speak of “duty” but it is not an act required of Mexicans nor is there a legally regulated penalty for not going to the polls.
For the revocation of the mandate, the electoral roll consisted of 92,823,216 citizens, of whom only 16,502,636 people, 17.7%, exercised their right to vote in this exercise. In this way, around 82% decided not to go to the polling stations.
According to the statements of the former Morena legislator, around 76 million Mexicans were not allowed to comply with their obligation to participate in the Mandate Revocation, although he clarified that the INE carried out poor disclosure, in addition to only installing 57,000 boxes throughout the country.
Although in the first instance the opinion of voters was positive for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the result is not binding because according to the Law on the Revocation of Mandate, a percentage of participation of at least 40% of the register was necessary, so the opposition parties qualified as a failure to this exercise, which they say was promoted by Morena and the federal cabinet.
Article 7 of the Legipe establishes that voting in elections constitutes a right and an obligation exercised to integrate organs of the popularly elected State. But article 447, on infringements by citizens, does not include the omission of voting as a misdemeanor or offence that merits any sanction.
For the law, it is infringements of citizens to provide false documentation or information to the Federal Register of Voters or the promotion of frivolous complaints, that is to say that which is promoted in respect of facts that are not supported by any means of proof or that cannot update the specific legal assumption in that the complaint or complaint is supported.
- To register in the cadastre of the municipality, stating the property that the citizen himself has, the industry, profession or work of which he remains; as well as to register in the National Registry of Citizens.
- To be part of the reserve corps in terms of law.
- To vote in elections, popular consultations and processes of revocation of mandate, in the terms specified by law.
Article 38 of the General Constitution mentioned by Pablo Gómez stipulates that the rights or prerogatives of citizens are suspended due to non-compliance with their obligations, but these would have to be determined by a judge and in any case the manner for the rehabilitation of those rights must be established.
- For failure to comply, without justified cause, with any of the obligations imposed by article 36. This suspension will last one year and shall be imposed in addition to the other penalties that the law indicates for the same act.
- For being subject to criminal proceedings for a crime that merits corporal punishment, counting from the date of the formal imprisonment order.
- During the extinction of corporal punishment.
- For vagrancy or customary drunkenness, declared in the terms that the laws prevent.
- For being a fugitive from justice, from the date of the issuance of the arrest warrant until the statute of limitations for criminal action.
- By an enforceable sentence that imposes such suspension as a penalty.
Back in 2013, the then Senator for the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), Luz María Beristain proposed in the Upper House that in addition to being considered a right, voting should become mandatory for all citizens and its non-compliance would be considered an infringement, which would be punished with an economic fine. However, this measure did not prosper and was scrapped.
Thus, in Mexico voting is a right and although it is recognized as a “civic” obligation, there is no regulation to sanction Mexicans who do not participate in popular elections by casting their votes.
KEEP READING: