Mexico's National Electoral Institute is preparing new rules for the financial audit of intra-party elections

While political parties in Mexico have already initiated internal processes to determine their candidates for the major elections to be held next year, the National Electoral Institute (INE) has started preparing a significant regulation regarding how income and expenses will be audited during these processes. Advisor Arturo Castillo's proposal to directly reflect the expenses of intra-party processes in campaign budgets and to penalize possible limit exceedances was rejected by the consejero. Consequently, the block led by INE President Guadalupe Taddei has put forward a new approach, described as a non-retroactive 'Plan B'. In this alternative plan, the expenditures in question are expected to be classified as ordinary party expenses. Additionally, serious restrictions and new rules are being introduced for cash, in-kind, and usufruct (comodato) donations.

Within the scope of this new draft introduced by the INE, highly clear and strict limitations are being imposed on the private funds that political parties can receive during their internal processes. Accordingly, the amount of private donations that individuals wishing to become presidential candidates can receive is limited to 3.3 million Mexican pesos, while the amount that party members and supporters can contribute cannot exceed 826 thousand 223 pesos. The main purpose of this restriction is to ensure that the origin and final destination of the funds used can be precisely determined and transparently recorded. Institution officials explicitly emphasize that these new restrictions are solely for internal party control and ordinary financial audit purposes. Therefore, it is specifically noted that these limits in no way replace the legally established expenditure ceilings for the pre-campaign or official campaign periods.

The newly prepared draft directive demands that political parties regularly classify all expenditures, including digital propaganda, under the name of the candidate benefiting from such propaganda. However, all these expenses will continue to be kept under the general ordinary accounting records of the party, rather than within the official pre-campaign or campaign budget. At the same time, it is emphasized that the participation of incumbent officials and legislators in these internal processes must not disrupt their core public duties, and they must refrain from using public resources associated with their positions for political activities. The goal is to prevent public officials from gaining excessive visibility in intra-party activities, which would create an unfair competitive environment. The INE demands that parties notify them in advance of all significant actions they undertake during their internal processes, thereby ensuring that oversight mechanisms are operated transparently.

The new rules include strict provisions that explicitly ban early campaign activities and make it mandatory for parties to avoid such initiatives. The regulation states that the use of official state media airtime (tiempos oficiales) for the purpose of promoting intra-party political processes or the candidates participating in these processes is strictly prohibited. The use of ordinary party financing will absolutely not be considered a loophold (legal loophole) to covertly conduct pre-campaign or official campaign activities. If any element or indication of an election-oriented activity is detected in an event, it is announced that the activity will be directly subject to the relevant applicable legislation and penal actions will be applied. In addition to this; foreign governments, international organizations, commercial companies, religious leaders, and unions are strictly prohibited from making any financial or in-kind donations to intra-party processes.

On the other hand, the competition between parties on the Mexican political scene has actually already begun; as last month, major parties like Morena officially started accepting candidacy applications for the critical 17 gubernatorial elections to be held next year. The National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) are also in the process of forming their own internal strategies to identify and register potential pre-candidates, even though their legal pre-campaign calendars began months ago. It is precisely in the context of these rapid political developments and early candidate selection efforts that the INE has prepared these general guidelines to comprehensively regulate political activities and propaganda for the federal and local elections to be held in 2026 and 2027. INE consejero members discussed this new comprehensive draft directive for the first time yesterday and have begun evaluating it in detail. As a result, it is anticipated that these steps, in terms of the transparency of intra-party democracy and financial auditability in Mexico's electoral system, will have a decisive impact on the political balances in the coming months.