Instituto Nacional Electoral

In 1917, with the publication of the Constitution of Mexico the Junta Empadronadora, the local Computing Councils and the Electoral Colleges were placed in charge of organizing and supervising the election of the President, the Chamber of Deputies, and the Senate.[1] This meant Municipal Presidents were granted a great deal of control over the election process, due to the location and amount of polling station within their Municipalities.[2]

The Federal Electoral Viligance Commission (CFVE), the first formal electoral body of Mexico, was established with the Federal Electoral Law on January 7, 1946, as a dependent agency of the Secretariat of the Interior (SEGOB).[3] The CFVE was led by the Secretary of the Interior, an additional Federal cabinet member, a Federal Deputy, a Senator, and two representatives from the most relevant political parties.[4] President Manuel Ávila Camacho, the artificer of the new agency, transferred the responsibility of electoral vigilance to the President of Mexico, arguing that Municipalities were incapacitated to perform that function due to "party influence".[5]

The new Electoral Law also established the Council of the Electoral Roll and Local Electoral Commissions, as well as declaring independent candidacies illegal, granting political parties exclusivity during electoral processes.[6]

In 1951, the attributions of the CFVE as an electoral authority were expanded. Some of its new responsibilities included emmitting majority certificates to recognize winning candidates and intervention in the process to create new political parties.[4]

In 1973, the CFVE was extinguished and replaced by the Federal Electoral Commission.[1] Its government organ introduced representatives from all legally registered political parties, who had voice and vote for the proceedings.[4]

In the 1976 Mexican general election, José López Portillo participated as the sole candidate for the Presidency. Consequently, once he was president, he passed the 1977 political-electoral reform, that created the Law for Political Organizations and Electoral Proceedings (LOPPE).[7][8] This law modified the government organ of the Electoral Commission, to include representatives from all parties, including those under a "conditional registry". The figure of conditional registry consisted of a four year probation period for new political parties, in which they'd need to demonstrate their subsistence.[4] This figure was eliminated in 1984. Since the reform made it easier to register new political parties and granted effective representation in the Electoral Commission to existing parties, it was generally considered a progressive reform.[7]

At the end of the 1980s, opposition parties consolidated themselves as a serious threat to Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)'s hegemony. This led to the 1987 electoral reform, that established a proportional representation system in the Electoral Commission's government body, giving PRI a majority of the political party representatives. Because of this, the reform was generally considered regressive.[7]

IFE former logo, used from 1990 to 2014

The IFE was formally established on October 11, 1990 after controversies surrounding the 1988 Mexican general election resulted in a series of constitutional reforms approved in 1989 and the Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures (Cofipe), a law passed in August 1990 and currently in force.[9] The legislative branch of the federal government, the national political parties, and the general citizenry participate in its composition.

Since its creation, the constitutional and legal regulations in this subject matter have experienced further major reforms, which have affected the composition and details of the IFE. A reform approved in 1996 reinforced the level of independence and autonomy of the IFE by completely dissociating the executive branch from any aspect regarding its membership or functions, and by reserving the vote within all its directive bodies to the councilors, the members that do not have links to any party or to any state power or body.

IFE had legal personnel and assets of its own. Its headquarters were located in the Federal District, and it was organized under a decentralized framework that allowed it to exercise its duties throughout the country.

As a result of electoral reforms initiated by President Enrique Peña Nieto, the IFE was dissolved on April 4, 2014, and was supplanted by the National Electoral Institute (Spanish: Instituto Nacional Electoral, INE).

With its creation in 2014, the National Electoral Institute took over all responsibilities of the Federal Electoral Institute. It was also charged with oversight of all elections at local and state level, as well as plebiscites and the regulation of processes of citizen's participation in public administration.[10] Lorenzo Córdova was appointed chairman of the General Council for a 9-year period starting 2014.

In 2022, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador proposed a reform that would require INE officials to be elected by vote. He contends that the proposal would "allow citizens to select honest people to run elections." The idea is opposed by academics and nongovernmental organizations,[11][12] viewing it a way to politicize the body with parties steering their supporters to vote for particular candidates for the board.[13]