“Referee sold”: Epigmenio Ibarra broke out again against the INE

Again, producer and journalist Epigmenio Ibarra lashed out against the National Electoral Institute (INE) after the recent endorsement of reform by the Head of Government of Mexico City (CDMX), Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who recently indicated that “it is time to change” the conditions under which the electoral authority chaired by Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, who has starred in several clashes with the Tabasqueño in the face of the revocation of mandate consultation to which he will undergo next April 10th.

In this regard, Ibarra Almada used his official Twitter account to set his position on the electoral body: “If AMLO had depended on INE I would not have won in 2018. It was the overwhelming crowd of voters that made fraud impossible. To that sold referee we don't owe anything...”, he wrote on social media. He also used this same medium to disseminate a poll to let Twitter users know their intention to vote for the citizen consultation.

Using the hashtags #QueSigaAMLO and #QueSigaLaDemocracia, Epigmenio Ibarra asked users how they will vote in the democratic exercise of the Mandate Revocation and took the opportunity to point out that the surveys he has conducted on social networks are attacked and manipulated by opposition bots.

However, this was not the only occasion that Ibarra had criticized the INE. Recently, the producer launched himself against the electoral counselor Ciro Murayama, who met with the interpreter Victor Trujillo Brozo, one of the most critical figures of the labor administration, a situation that was also criticized by Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) and several of the members that make up its political faction. “Electoral Counsellor, Clown or Patiño del Clown...” wrote Ibarra on his official Twitter account.

The criticism made by Epigmenio Ibarra on Monday afternoon also occurred after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said, during his morning conference, that the INE “has not acted righteously; there is evidence that only those who are in favor of transformation are prevented from demonstrating, and there is no question to those who are openly not to have people participate.”

The fact is that AMLO defended the head of the Ministry of the Interior (Segob), Adán Augusto López Hernández, who has been rained in criticism for allegedly promoting the Revocation of Mandate despite the electoral ban imposed by the electoral authority since February 4. However, these comments were denied by the president and assured that the official was only fulfilling his responsibility, this despite the fact that the INE has not acted in the appropriate way to disseminate the citizen consultation.

In this regard, the Mexican president has made several accusations about the work carried out by the INE in terms of the dissemination and attention given to the exercise in which his mandate will be “approved”. At the same time, he has accused that the institute “obeys the interests of third parties, and is not autonomous”. Just last March 28, AMLO expressed his dissatisfaction with the promotion of the popular consultation, and assured that it was necessary to look for “like Dora la exploradora” to find the diffusion.

It should be recalled that in the coming weeks, and following the citizens' consultation, AMLO will present the second initiative to reform electoral. Among his proposals, it was highlighted that electoral councillors and magistrates should be elected by direct vote, a situation that would eliminate deputies and senators of proportional representation. Likewise, the Tabasqueño proposed lowering the costs of operations carried out by the INE.

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