What became of the aspiring independent candidates?

On March 30, 2018, the General Council of the National Electoral Institute (INE) officially announced its decision to reject the application of several aspiring independent candidates running for President, including that of Jaime Rodríguez Calderón – known as “El Bronco – for failing to comply with the requirements set forth by the law.

According to official documents, out of the 2.3 million signatures Rodríguez originally presented as part of the official requirements to support his candidacy, the INE only validated 1.1 million of those signatures. However, the Institute deducted an additional 387, 897 signatures for including “simulations” of original documents, such as voter's cards, or for discount cards, and more – a situation which the INE is yet to investigate.

During this special session, the INE also announced the list of aspiring independent candidates to the Presidency who failed to gather the minimum number of signatures required:

1. Pedro Ferriz de Con
2. Armando Ríos Piter
3. Antonio Jaime Reynoso
4. Eduardo Santillán
5. Porfirio Moreno
6. Daniel Garza
7. Javier Jiménez
8. Luis Ponce
9. María de Jesús "Marichuy" Patricio

According to official requirements, all aspiring independent candidates had to gather the valid signatures of 1% of the electoral roll – that is, 866, 593 signatures – from, at least, 17 different states of the Mexican Republic and record them using the INE's special app designed for such purpose.

Margarita Zavala

is the only independent candidate to have met all the requirements – validated by the INE – in order to run for President.

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