Political parties accuse the OPLE of militarizing the June 1 elections.

It was reported on May 31 that Rubén Moreira , coordinator of the deputies of the Institutional Revolutionary Party ( PRI ), accused the Local Public Electoral Body ( OPLE ) of allowing military presence in the municipal councils of Durango for the elections of June 1.

Moreira stated that they did so without notifying the political parties.

"Why does the Army have to enter the electoral offices of every municipality? Why are they so active the day before the elections? " he wrote on social media.

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN: Judicial Branch Elections: Myths and Realities

This reaction was triggered after being notified of a letter, signed by Infantry Colonel Jaime Armando Ortega Zúñiga , addressed to the president of the Canales municipal electoral council.

The letter's intent is to request access for soldiers from the 71st Infantry Battalion , dressed in civilian clothes. Their mission would be to enter the Canal Council to serve as a liaison for monitoring the 2025 Extraordinary Electoral Process of the Judicial Branch and the 2024-2025 Local Electoral Process . The notification states that the soldiers would not intervene in the process.

In parallel with the PRI coordinator's accusations, the PAN party accused the OPLE of militarizing the elections during a press conference.

' We want to clearly denounce an issue that we find very strange on the part of the Electoral Institute and Citizen Participation of the State of Durango, where they are requesting the continuous and permanent presence of elements of the Secretariat of National Defense and even more, the strangest thing is that they are requesting them in civilian clothing, I think that is regrettable, it has been many years since there has been a militarization of an election and in this case it seems that the institute wants to bring this type of improper acts outside the law in this election and that obviously violate the certainty of this election ,' commented Mario Salazar, leader of the PAN in Durango.

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN: Judicial reform reaches the election with the approval of the electorate, reveals a US pollster.

Together, they asserted that no official report has been issued regarding the presence, or permission, of elements of the Mexican Army in the Local Councils .

TOPICS