Aspiring governor Félix Salgado Macedonio participates in a protest at the Electoral Tribunal this Wednesday.Sáshenka Gutiérrez / EFE
One month after the start of the electoral campaign, the future of the elections in the State of Guerrero is still uncertain.
The controversial candidate for governor who heads all the polls, Félix Salgado Macedonio, still does not know if he will be able to participate in the elections on June 6.
The National Electoral Institute (INE) annulled his candidacy on March 25 for failing to present a report on pre-campaign expenses.
Salgado Macedonio challenged the decision before the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judicial Branch, which must now decide whether to validate its list.
On the eve of the court ruling, scheduled for this Friday, the leadership of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) closed ranks and protested outside the court in an attempt to move the balance in their favor.
The Guerrero leader warned that he will not accept a resolution against him and insisted on the extinction of the INE.
"They have to fall, they are going to fall," he said.
The Electoral Court is in session these days virtually due to the covid pandemic.
Despite the fact that its members do not attend the building in person, the followers of Salgado Macedonio, led by himself, were installed this Wednesday at the door of the court in Mexico City in an attempt to press for a favorable resolution.
They were accompanied by the president of the party, Mario Delgado, who accused the whole affair as a "dark and shameful maneuver" by the INE advisers related to the opposition.
The judicial one is the last battle that the aspiring governor has given in a campaign full of setbacks.
Morena's senator faced two complaints of rape and several accusations of sexual harassment, a dispute that almost left him out of the race and that divided the waters within his party.
Members of the formation and members of the federal government rejected the support that the party gave him.
The strongest defense came from the hand of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a longtime comrade in the PRD.
Morena is not willing to release the candidacy of Salgado Macedonio.
The Guerrero politician leads all the polls in the state, which anticipate an almost certain victory if he is allowed to participate.
In some, he even has up to 20 points more than the second in voting intention, Mario Moreno Arcos, from the alliance of the PRI and the PRD.
"We will fight until the last moment, so that the will of the people is respected," he posted on his Twitter account after Wednesday's rally.
Morena has made his fight against the electoral institute one of the campaign flags in the largest elections in the history of Mexico.
The leaders of the ruling party accuse the INE advisers of wanting to harm them with the decisions they have taken, as in the case of Salgado Macedonio or the mechanism for electing multi-member deputies.
"I tell these councilors that it is valid that they do not coincide with our project, with our principles, with our values, but if they want to confront us, join the political party of their bosses and compete in a democratic way and not from the position in the INE , which should be of absolute transparency and impartiality, "Delgado said in a video published this Wednesday.
The Guerrero leader has raised the stakes and insisted that he will impeach the seven councilors of the electoral institute.
"It must disappear," he said, referring to the body in charge of organizing the elections.
After Wednesday's rally, the Electoral Court accepted Salgado Macedonio's challenge to the INE's decision and must now put an end to the dispute.
For the aspiring governor, "it would be very regrettable" if they ruled against him, but he has anticipated that he will not abide by a decision that removes him from the campaign.
"If Felix does not appear on the ballot, there will be no elections in Guerrero," his followers warn.
The wait for the resolution that will determine his electoral future has stirred the political climate in the State.
Protesters for and against protested this Thursday and are called to take to the streets again on Friday, the defining day.
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