Chiapas: Electoral Tribunal Annuls Election Results in Two Municipalities

@Cuartoscuro

The Electoral Court of the State of Chiapas declared null and void the municipal elections of San Cristobal de Las Casas and Comalapa due to different irregularities in the electoral processes. In both, the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) had won with the candidates Carlos Ramirez, for Comalapa, who was seeking to govern for the second time and where his brother is the current mayor and Mariano Diaz Ochoa, for San Cristobal, who after governing twice (1999-2001 and 2008-2009) for the PRI, would now do it for the PVEM (in 2018 he ran with the local party Podemos Mover a Chiapas, but lost).

Mariano Diaz Ochoa was arrested in 2011 for the crimes of embezzlement, criminal association and illegal exercise of public service, but he was released.

In the case of San Cristobal, the nullity is a consequence of the breaking of the chain of custody of the electoral packages, the loss of certainty in the electoral process due to the loss of 83 ballots and the violation of the principle of fairness in the contest, and that Diaz Ochoa placed various billboards in the city, which were to his benefit.

The results of the election in San Cristobal showed a difference between the first placed PVEM and the second placed MORENA of only thousand 507 votes, which represents 2.46%, that is, less than the 5% that is foreseen in the state electoral law to decree the election null and void. Therefore, the Plenary decided to nullify the elections and called the State Congress to call extraordinary elections.

On another note, in Frontera Comalapa the nullity of the elections was decreed due to the improper handling and destruction of electoral packages, acts of violence that violated the electoral warehouse and the chain of custody (burning of polls and the extraction of electoral packages were reported by people, some hooded and armed) and by the illegality of the final computation process.

Extraordinary elections will also be held in this municipality.

Finally, this ruling is linked to the General Council of the Institute of Elections and Citizen Participation (IEPC), as well as to the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), for the purposes of investigations and corresponding procedures.

For more information in Spanish:

Anulan elecciones en San Cristóbal de las Casas y Frontera Comalapa (Chiapas Paralelo, 29 agosto 2021)

Anulan la elección a Ayuntamiento de San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Excelsior, 28 agosto 2021)

Tribunal Electoral de Chiapas anula elecciones en dos municipios (El Universal, 27 agosto 2021)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Más de 160 mil electores no pudieron ejercer su voto durante las elecciones del 6 de junio (June 7, 2021)