Wednesday, December 1, 2010

IFE under fire: TEPJF orders IFE to reopen investigation of church

Last week, TEPJF, Mexico's highest electoral court, ordered the Fedral Electoral Institute (IFE), which arranges federal elections in Mexcio, to reopen the complaint that the PRD had launched against the church, which in the past months have drastically stepped up its political proselytizing, such as calling on voters not to vote for the PRD, a party it shamefully refer to as "fascist." To anyone with a casual knowledge of the Mexican Constitution, these were obvious and blatant breaches of constitutional as well as electoral law - and not to mention, which is a separate issue, the open hate speech from the church against gays and accusing the Supreme Court of being corrupt.

Yet IFE, to recall, timidly refused to take any stand on the issue or reprimand the church in any way. It washed its hands off the case by passing on the complaint to the Interior Ministry, which IFE knows fully well would mean that the case would be permanently shelved. Now, however, the electoral tribunal, the TEPJF, ruled that IFE engaged in an "insufficient investigation" of the matter, and ordered it to reopen the process.

This is excellent news. As Rafael Hernández, PRD's party representative notes, hopefully this will lead to the spelling out of clearer rules regarding what the church is allowed and not allowed to do: It is well overdue.

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