On June 2, 2026, the Decree amending and supplementing various provisions of the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures (LGIPE) regarding Integrity in Candidacies was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation. This reform represents one of the most significant changes to the Mexican electoral system in recent years, as it introduces mechanisms aimed at preventing the infiltration of organized crime and other unlawful conduct into electoral processes.
In recent years, the relationship between organized crime and electoral processes has become one of the main concerns for Mexican authorities and society. Cases of political violence, threats against candidates, illicit financing, and alleged links between criminal groups and political actors have raised doubts about the system’s ability to guarantee genuinely free elections. Therefore, the objective of the reform is to strengthen preventive mechanisms to identify risks before a person assumes an elected public office.
The reform introduces, for the first time, an institutional framework focused on the integrity of candidacies, with the purpose of strengthening public trust in democratic processes and reducing the risks of illicit interests infiltrating elected public offices.
To this end, the reform provides for coordination between electoral authorities and various government agencies related to security, intelligence, and law enforcement in order to timely identify risk factors associated with conduct that may compromise the legality, transparency, and legitimacy of a candidacy.
The most significant aspect lies not only in the verification mechanisms, but in the shift in approach introduced by the reform. Traditionally, electoral law has operated under a reactive model, where authorities intervened once a violation had occurred. The reform seeks to change this dynamic through a preventive approach, identifying potential risks in advance that could affect the integrity of candidacies.
While the reform aims to strengthen confidence in democratic processes, one of its greatest challenges will lie in the way potential risk factors are identified and assessed. The question is unavoidable: what should be understood as a “risk,” and what objective criteria will be used to determine it?
The existence of a complaint, an open criminal investigation file, or even an ongoing line of investigation does not, by itself, constitute proof of liability nor does it eliminate a person's presumption of innocence. One of the major challenges will be to establish objective, transparent, and verifiable criteria that make it possible to distinguish between legitimate institutional risks and mere suspicions that lack sufficient legal basis.
The Mexican electoral system has historically based eligibility on objective and clearly defined requirements: nationality, age, residency, and the absence of certain sanctions. The incorporation of integrity-related criteria implies the introduction of evaluative elements that require clear rules to avoid discretionary decisions. The real challenge lies not only in detecting potential risks, but in doing so without turning prevention into a premature form of sanction or restriction of rights.
The reform on Integrity in Candidacies marks a paradigm shift in the Mexican electoral system. From now on, the protection of democracy will focus not only on sanctioning irregularities once they occur, but also on preventing individuals linked to illicit activities from gaining access to elected public office.
However, the effectiveness of this new model will depend on the clarity with which the criteria for identifying risks are defined. Although prevention is a legitimate objective, there is a risk that information not supported by final judicial decisions may lead to discretionary decisions or affect fundamental rights such as the presumption of innocence and the right to be elected. The real challenge will be to ensure that these mechanisms operate with objectivity, transparency, and full respect for the constitutional framework.
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