Mexico's political parties lack in transparency

Mexico's political parties do not fulfill their transparency duties, and authorities fail to compel them to do so.

No political party fully informs about their ordinary, pre-campaign or campaign expenditures, said Mauricio Merino, teacher and researcher at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE).

The study “Transparency and accountability among parties” conducted by Iniciativa Ciudadana y Desarrollo Social (Incide Social) presented this year with information from 2012 to 2013 concluded that “political parties do not fulfill their transparency obligations, and the National Electoral Institute (INE) does not verify that they do so every six months”, as stated in the law.

The most recent report of the INE on the websites of political parties revealed that they do not provide information about their leasing and purchase contracts, concessions and services, with a 14.2% level of compliance.

Adriana Favela, director of the Transparency and Access to Information Department of the INE, reported that the level of compliance is 52%. However, the percentage dropped after the emergence of three new political parties.

Also, even though political parties spent over 5 billion pesos (US$301 million) in 2015, they do not provide much information about the use of resources, and their level of compliance is even lower: 12.5%.

After a constitutional reform to improve transparency enacted on May 4, the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Public Information and Data Protection (INAI) will be in charge of supervising the parties' transparency instead of the INE.