Elections in Mexico
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Elections in Mexico are held for officials at federal, state, and municipal levels. At the federal level, the nation's head of state, the president, is directly elected with the popular vote by all Mexican citizens for a six-year non-renewable term. All members of the bicameral federal legislature, the Congress of the Union, are also elected by all Mexican citizens. At the state level, each state has an elective governor and unicameral congress. At the municipal level, the municipal presidents are also elected by their citizens. Since 2016, a constitutional amendment has designed Mexico City to be a fully autonomous entity on par with the states. Its city mayor, city congress, and borough mayors are elected by their citizens in a similar fashion to those states.
Voting
[edit]Voter eligibility
[edit]Mexican citizens over 18 years of age are eligible to vote in all Mexican elections. In order to carry the ballot, the citizen should first request a Voting Credential (Spanish: Credencial para Votar), a plastic card issues by the National Electoral Institute (Spanish: Instituto Nacional Electoral, INE) of the federal government. [1]
To receive Voting Credential, the citizen need:
- Proof of either their birth in Mexico or their naturalization
- Some form of photo ID
- Proof of their residence
Electoral system
[edit]Mexico is a federal republic, the electoral system is regulated by the Constitution of Mexico as well as the constitutions of the 32 federative entities. These constitutions have separation of powers into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The heads of executive and all members of legislature are open to for elections by the citizens. Officials of the judiciary are not open for election.[2]
The heads of government executive bodies are commonly directly elected with the popular vote for a six-year term. Terms of elected executives are non-renewable, seeking to be reelected is forbidden by the constitutions. The executive election is held through voting on a single plurality voting ballot for the candidate, and the winner is decided by first-past-the-post voting rule.
The members of the legislatures are commonly directly elected with the popular vote for a three-year (most common) or a six-year (federal senate) term. There are usually term limits placed on members of the legislatures. Most legislative elections have mixed electoral systems. The votes are counted toward both candidates and political parties through 1-ballot mixed single voteing or 2-ballot parallel voting. The winners are decided by a hybrid across first-past-the-post voting (single-member district), party-list proportional representation, and/or Mixed-member proportional representation.
Political parties
[edit]Mexico has a multi-party system, with three dominant political parties. Prior to 2000 Mexico had a dominant-party system under the Institutional Revolutionary Party, and a number of smaller opposition parties. Alliances and coalitions are common: normally, they are local (state) affairs and involve one of the big three and any number of minor parties, though in extraordinary occasions two of the big three will ally themselves against the third (e.g., 2003 Colima state election or 2004 Chihuahua state election).[3]
Indigenous communities
[edit]Article 2 of the Constitution of Mexico provides for the self-government of indigenous communities according to their "traditional customs" (Spanish: sistema de usos y costumbres).[4] This has resulted in several indigenous communities in Mexico maintaining local systems, notably those of Cherán, and areas under Councils of Good Government control.
Federal elections
[edit]According to the Constitution of Mexico, several important officials of the federal government of Mexico (Spanish: Gobierno federal de México or Poderes de la Unión) shall be elected by all Mexican citizens, including the president of Mexico who serves as the head of state and head of government, as well as all members of the bicameral Congress of the Union that consists of Chamber of Deputies and Senate of the Republic.
Under the current Mexican electoral system, the president of Mexico is directly elected for a six-year non-renewable term. The 128 senators are elected for a six-year term. The 500 deputies are elected for a three-year term. The elections are synchronized that Mexican citizens elect the president, senators, and deputies at once every six years. A midterm election for the deputies will happen in the mid point of the six-year period. Federal elections are usually held in early June, July, or August of the year.
The last general election was held on 2 June 2024 for presidential, senate, and chamber of deputies elections. The next chamber of deputies election are expected to be held in 2027; while the next presidential election and senate election are expected to be held in 2030.
Presidential elections
[edit]The president of Mexico (Spanish: Presidente de México) is elected for a six-year term by direct election of all Mexican citizens. The candidate who wins a plurality of votes is elected president. No president can serve more than a single term in office, therefore every presidential election in Mexico is a non-incumbent election.[2]
Mexico does not have an office of vice president.
Eligibility
[edit]Candidates for president must be at least 35 years old. They must be Mexican citizens by birth, as must one of their parents. They must have been residents of Mexico for at least 20 years. They also cannot have been either the governor of a state or the chief of government of Mexico City for six months prior to the election.[5]
Congressional elections
[edit]The Congress of the Union (Spanish: Congreso de la Unión) is composed of two chambers: Chamber of Deputies and Senate of the Republic.
Chamber of Deputies elections
[edit]The Chamber of Deputies (Spanish: Cámara de Diputados) has 500 deputies (Spanish: diputados). The deputies are elected to a three-year term through a 2-ballot parallel voting system. [2][6] Deputies may serve up to four consecutive terms.[5]
- 300 uninominal deputies (Spanish: diputados uninominales) are elected by candidate votes in single-seat federal electoral districts (Spanish: distritos electorales federales) using first-past-the-post method. The federal electoral districts are divided among the 32 federative entities based on population of approximately every 250,000 citizens each..
- 200 plurinominal deputies (Spanish: diputados plurinominales) are elected by party-list votes in five 40-seat electoral regions (Spanish: circunscripciones electorales) using proportional representation method. Each electoral region contains multiple federative entities that considers the balance of total populations.
To be eligible to place candidates in the multi-seat districts a party must have candidates in at least 200 of the 300 single-seat districts and must win at least 2% of the vote in those elections. The 200 PR-seats are distributed based on the percentage of the total national votes earned by each party without taking into account the 300 plurality-seats (parallel voting). However, since 1996, a party cannot get more seats overall than 8% above its result nationally (i.e., to win 50% of the legislative seats, a party must win at least 42% of the vote nationwide). There are three exceptions on this rule: first, a party can only lose PR-seats due to this rule (and no plurality-seats); second, a party can never get more than 300 seats overall (even if it has more than 52% of the vote nationally); and third, a party can exceed this 8% rule if it wins the seats in the single-member districts.[2]
Senate elections
[edit]The Senate of the Republic (Spanish: Senado de la República), or Chamber of Senators (Spanish: Cámara de Senadores), has 128 senators (Spanish: senadores). The senators are elected to a six-year term through a 1-ballot mixed single vote system, where the single party-list vote is counted in the following two ways. [2][6] Senators may run for two consecutive terms.[5]
- 96 senators are elected from the 32 federative entities. Each federative entity elects 3 senators by mixed-member proportional representation, where two seats are awarded to the party with the most votes and one seat is awarded to the party with the second most votes.
- 32 senators are elected by the party-list proportional representation on a nationwide basis.
Candidates for the Chamber of Senators must be registered voters at least 25 years old. They also must have been born in, or been residents of the states they are running in for at least six months.[5]
Other restrications
[edit]Electoral magistrates, the Secretary of the Electoral Tribunal, and the Executive Secretary and Executive Director of the INE must separate themselves from their positions for at least three years before seeking legislative office.[7]
State and Mexico City elections
[edit]Mexico has 32 federative entity (Spanish: entidades federativas) which includes 31 states and Mexico City. Each federative entity elects its own head of executive (governor or head of government) and all members of legislature (congress).
Gubernatorial and head of government elections
[edit]The leader of a federative entity is officially named governor (Spanish: gobernador) for a Mexican state, and head of government (Spanish: Jefe/Jefa de Gobierno) for Mexico City. These officials are elected for a six-year non-renewable term by the citizens of that federative entity.
To be a governor or head of government:
- Candidates born in the federative entity must have been a resident for three years previous to the election
- Candidates born outside of the federative entity must have been residents for five years previous to the election
- Candidates must be at least 30 years old
- Candidates cannot have been a minister of any religion for five years previous to the election
- Candidates cannot have been in the military or a head of public security forces for 90 days previous to the election
- Candidates cannot have citizenship in any country other than Mexico
Congressional elections
[edit]Each federative entity has a unicameral legislature officially named congress (Spanish: congreso). Members of the congresses are called deputies (Spanish: diputados). All seats of the congress are elected to three-year terms in a mixed electoral system. Deputies can serve up to four consecutive terms.
For example, there are 75 seats in the Congress of the State of México. Forty-five seats are apportioned in direct elections in single-member districts and 30 are apportioned via proportional appointments. Political parties nominate their candidates for proportional appointments before the election. For a party to be eligible for proportional-appointment seats they must run candidates in at least 30 districts and receive at least 3% of the vote throughout the state.
Similar to the federal Chamber of Deputies, a party cannot have more than 8% more seats in the legislature than their percentage of state-wide votes (e.g., to win 50% of the legislative seats, a party must win at least 42% of the vote statewide) unless that excess was earned in the direct elections.
To be a deputy of the congress:
- Candidates born in the federative entity must have been a resident for one year previous to the election
- Candidates born outside of the federative entity must have been residents for three years previous to the election
- Candidates must be at least 21 years old
- Candidates cannot have been a minister of any religion for five years previous to the election
- Candidates cannot have worked for any election commission for two years previous to the election
- Candidates cannot have been a sitting municipal or federal legislator for 90 days previous to the election
- Candidates cannot have been a sitting judge for 90 days previous to the election
- Candidates cannot have been in the military or a head of public security forces for 90 days previous to the election
- Candidates cannot be a sitting governor
Municipal and borough elections
[edit]Under the current administrative divisions of Mexico, states are divided into municipalities and Mexico City is divided into boroughs. The autonomy of these divisions are protected by the Constitution of Mexico. Leaders of these divisions, called municipal presidents (Spanish: presidentes municipales) or borough mayors (Spanish: alcaldes), are directly elected for a six-year non-renewable term.
Schedule
[edit] | This section needs to be updated. (November 2024) |
Federal elections
[edit]- 2024 Mexican general election (Presidential, Senate, Chamber of Deputies)
- 2021 Mexican legislative election (Chamber of Deputies)
- 2018 Mexican general election (Presidential, Senate, Chamber of Deputies)
- 2015 Mexican legislative election (Chamber of Deputies)
- 2012 Mexican general election (Presidential, Senate, Chamber of Deputies)
- 2009 Mexican legislative election (Chamber of Deputies)
State elections
[edit]- 2024 Mexican local elections
- 2023 Mexican local elections
- 2022 Mexican local elections
- 2021 Mexican local elections
- 2020 Mexican local elections
- 2019 Baja California state election
- 2019 Puebla special elections
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Credencial proceso". Instituto Nacional Electoral (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-03-24.
- ^ a b c d e "Instituto Nacional Electoral". portalanterior.ine.mx (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-03-23.
- ^ "Eleccion Mexico". eleccion2012mexico.com. 2012.
- ^ "Justia México :: Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos > TÍTULO PRIMERO > CAPÍTULO I :: Ley de Mexico". mexico.justia.com (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 2018-07-09.
- ^ a b c d "Elections in Mexico: 2018 General Elections" (PDF). International Foundation for Electoral Systems.
- ^ a b "Eleccion Mexico". eleccion2012mexico.com. 2012. Archived from the original on 2011-08-23. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
- ^ "Compendio de Legislación Nacional Electoral". Compendio de Legislación Nacional Electoral (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Instituto Nacional Electoral. 2014. Archived from the original on 2019-03-24. Retrieved 2019-03-24.
External links
[edit]- Election 2012 Mexico official website.
- IFE website Archived 2017-03-18 at the Wayback Machine
- Mexico page of the ACE Project
- Adam Carr's Election Archive
- Electionworld[permanent dead link]
