The INE opens independent candidacies for deputies for the 2026-2027 process

The General Council of the National Electoral Institute issued the call and guidelines to verify the citizen support required for the registration of independent candidacies for federal deputies under the relative majority principle for the 2026-2027 Federal Electoral Process. The determination is contained in Agreement INE/CG562/2026, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on Thursday, October 15, 2026 (No. 283/2026), and sets the spending limit for support collection activities at 220,326.20 pesos.

The agreement was approved in an ordinary session of the General Council held on September 24, 2026, generally by a unanimous vote of the eleven electoral councilors, and specifically—recitals 40 and 41 and agreement point Fourth—by nine votes in favor and two against from Arturo Castillo Loza and Carla Astrid Humphrey Jordan. The document is signed by the presiding councilor Guadalupe Taddei Zavala and by the acting head of the Secretariat of the General Council, Roberto Carlos Félix López.

The call is based on articles 366, 367, 368, 369, 371, 374, 375, 383, and 385 of the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures, as well as the Election Regulations, and comprises the stages of the call, pre-registration activities, obtaining citizen support, and registration of candidacies.

Expression of intent, deadlines, and registration

• The expression of intent is submitted from the day following the publication of the call until one day before the start of the period to collect support, before the Executive Vocalía of the corresponding District Board.
• It must be accompanied by the documentation of the Civil Association constituted for the nomination, the registration with the Tax Administration Service and the bank account details of the legal entity.
• Persons aspiring to federal deputations have sixty days to collect citizen support; the conclusion of the period was set for February 12, 2027, through Agreement INE/CG478/2026.
• The registration of candidacies will take place between March 22 and 29 before the District Councils of the Institute.
• Each formula consists of a principal and a substitute of the same gender, or of different genders provided that the principal is a man and the substitute is a woman.

Spending limit and verification of support

The maximum spending limit for activities aimed at collecting citizen support amounts to 220,326.20 pesos, equivalent to 10 percent of the campaign limit for deputations of the 2023-2024 PEF, which was 2,203,262 pesos. Anyone who exceeds this limit will lose the right to registration or, if already obtained, it will be canceled.

The support roster must contain at least 2 percent of the nominal list of the electoral district, as of August 31, 2026, and be composed of citizens from at least half of the electoral sections, totaling at least 1 percent from each. Collection is carried out through the Institute’s mobile application, in both in-person and self-service modalities, compatible with iOS 15.6 and Android 9.0 onwards, and requires images of the front and back of the original voter ID card, a live photograph, and a handwritten signature.

A Control Desk operated by the Executive Directorate of the Federal Register of Voters will review each support entry and reflect the result on the web portal within a maximum period of ten days. The right to a hearing may only be requested when the aspiring candidate reaches at least half of the support required by law.

Exception regime in 204 municipalities of very high marginalization

The General Council approved the list of 204 municipalities considered by the National Population Council to have a very high degree of marginalization, based on information from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, in which aspiring candidates may optionally collect support via printed rosters. Support may only be collected on paper from citizens whose address, according to the Electoral Roll, is located in those municipalities.

The exception regime is accompanied by the support roster format and the respective list, identified as Annex FOUR and Annex FIVE of the agreement, and seeks to guarantee equality in the contest where material or technological impediments exist.

Prerogatives, obligations, and sanctions

• Access to radio and television as a newly registered party, only during electoral campaigns.
• Public and private financing, considering the group of independent candidacies as a newly registered party.
• Postal franchise of 4 percent distributed equally, without the right to telegraphic franchises.
• Submission of the income and expenditure report within thirty days following the conclusion of the collection period; failure to do so implies denial of registration.
• Denial or cancellation of registration for exceeding spending limits, contracting radio and television airtime, or early campaign activities.
• Signing of the anti-violence format—a measure called “8 of 8”—and uploading information to the “Candidates, Get to Know Them” System, in accordance with Agreement INE/CG616/2022.
• Use of the Single Registration Format for Assistants (FURA) to accredit those supporting the collection process.

The call orders that the agreement be communicated to the Institute’s District Boards and its relevant aspects be disseminated on the INE website, in two newspapers of national circulation, and in one daily newspaper in each federal entity.

The decision formally opens the 2027 electoral route for those seeking to compete as independent candidates: it defines how much they can spend, how they must prove citizen support, and in which municipalities the paperwork is accepted, in addition to specifying the prerogatives and the grounds for loss of registration. For voters, it establishes that support is granted with an original ID and a live photograph, mechanisms through which the Institute seeks to curb simulations and registrations generated with altered documents.

Source: Official Gazette of the Federation, No. 283/2026, Thursday, October 15, 2026, National Electoral Institute, p. 84 (official reference: Agreement INE/CG562/2026).