Article 116 Political Constitution of the United Mexican States

The public power of the states shall be divided, for its exercise, into Executive, Legislative and Judicial, and two or more of these powers may not be united in a single person or corporation, nor may the legislative be deposited in a single individual.

The powers of the States shall be organized in accordance with the Constitution of each of them, subject to the following rules:

I.The governors of the States may not remain in their office for more than six years and their mandate may be revoked. The Constitutions of the States shall establish the rules relating to the processes of revocation of mandate of the governor of the federal entity.

The election of the governors of the States and of the Local Legislatures shall be direct and in the terms provided by the respective electoral laws.

The governors of the States whose origin is popular election, ordinary or extraordinary, may in no case and for no reason return to occupy that office, not even in the capacity of interim, provisional, substitute or persons in charge of the office.

They may never be elected for the immediately following term:

a)The substitute constitutional governor, or the one designated to conclude the term in case of absolute absence of the constitutional governor, even if it has a different denomination;

b)The interim governor, the provisional one or the citizen who, under any denomination, fills the temporary absences of the governor, provided that it performs the office during the last two years of the term.

c)The person who has or has had in the last three years prior to the day of the election a bond of marriage or concubinage or de facto union, or of kinship by consanguinity or civil kinship in the direct line without limitation of degree and in the collateral line up to the fourth degree or by affinity up to the second degree, with the person who is exercising the office of the governorship.

Only a Mexican citizen by birth and native thereof, or with effective residence of not less than five years immediately prior to the day of the elections, may be constitutional governor of a State, and must be 30 years of age on the day of the election, or less, if the Political Constitution of the Federal Entity so establishes.

II.The number of representatives in the legislatures of the States shall be proportional to that of the inhabitants of each one; but, in all cases, it may not be less than seven deputies in the States whose population does not reach 400 thousand inhabitants; nine, in those whose population exceeds this number and does not reach 800 thousand inhabitants, and 11 in the States whose population is greater than this last figure.

The state Constitutions shall establish that the annual budget of the local legislatures does not exceed zero point seventy percent of the budget of expenditures of the corresponding federal entity. Likewise, they shall guarantee the principles of parity, substantive equality and gender perspective, in the integration and functioning of the local legislative bodies; as well as prohibit the reelection of the persons who are deputies to the Legislatures of the States for the term immediately following the exercise of their mandate. Persons who are substitute deputies may be elected for the immediately following term in the capacity of principal deputies, provided that they have not been in office, but persons who are principal deputies may not be elected for the immediately following term in the capacity of substitute deputies. In no case may the person who has or has had in the last three years prior to the day of the election a bond of marriage or concubinage or de facto union, or of kinship by consanguinity or civil kinship in the direct line without limitation of degree and in the collateral line up to the fourth degree or by affinity up to the second degree, with the person who is exercising the office of the deputyship, participate in the election of a deputyship.

The legislatures of the States shall be composed of elected deputies, according to the principles of relative majority and proportional representation, in the terms set by their laws. In no case may a political party have a number of deputies under both principles that represents a percentage of the total of the legislature that exceeds its percentage of votes cast by eight points. This basis shall not apply to the political party that by its victories in single-member districts obtains a percentage of seats of the total of the legislature greater than the sum of the percentage of its votes cast plus eight percent. Likewise, in the composition of the legislature, the percentage of representation of a political party may not be less than the percentage of votes that it has received minus eight percentage points.

The annual approval of the corresponding budget of expenditures corresponds to the legislatures of the States. In setting the remuneration of public officials they shall be subject to the bases provided in Article 127 of this Constitution.

The state Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers, as well as the bodies with autonomy recognized in their local constitutions, shall include within their budget projects the itemized salary tables of the remuneration that their public officials are proposed to receive. These proposals shall observe the procedure that the applicable constitutional and legal provisions establish for the approval of the budgets of expenditures of the States.

The legislatures of the states shall have state audit entities, which shall be bodies with technical and management autonomy in the exercise of their attributions and to decide on their internal organization, functioning and resolutions, in the terms provided by their laws. The audit function shall be developed in accordance with the principles of legality, impartiality and reliability. Likewise, they shall audit the actions of States and Municipalities in matters of funds, local resources and public debt. The audit reports of the state audit entities shall be public in nature.

The head of the audit entity of the federal entities shall be elected by two thirds of the members present in the local legislatures, for periods of not less than seven years and must have five years of experience in matters of control, financial audit and responsibilities.

The public account of the previous year shall be sent to the Legislature of the State no later than 30 April. The period for presentation may only be extended when there is a request from the Governor, sufficiently justified in the judgment of the Legislature.

The Legislatures of the States shall regulate the terms so that citizens may present legislative initiatives before the respective Congress.

III.The Judicial Power of the States shall be exercised by the courts that the respective Constitutions establish.

The independence of the magistrates and judges in the exercise of their functions shall be guaranteed by the Constitutions and the Organic Laws of the States, which shall establish the conditions for their election by direct and secret vote of the citizenry; the creation of a Judicial Discipline Court (Tribunal de Disciplina Judicial) and of a judicial administration body with technical and management independence and to issue its resolutions, in accordance with the bases established in this Constitution for the Federal Judiciary; as well as of the entry, training and permanence of those who serve the Judicial Powers of the States.

The magistrates and judges who are members of the Local Judicial Powers shall meet the requirements indicated by sections I to IV of the second paragraph of Article 97 of this Constitution and the others established by the Constitutions and the Organic Laws of the States. The persons who have occupied the office of head of a Secretariat or its equivalent, Prosecutor or Local Deputy, in their respective States, during the year prior to the day of publication of the respective call by the local Congress may not be magistrates.

The proposals of candidacies and the election of the magistrates and judges who are members of the Local Judicial Powers shall be subject to the same bases, stages, procedures, terms, periods, modalities, requirements, duration of the offices and other provisions that this Constitution establishes for the Federal Judiciary in everything that results applicable, including by way of enumeration:

a)The establishment of public, open, transparent, inclusive, accessible and parity-based mechanisms of evaluation and selection that guarantee the participation of all interested persons;

b)The integration by each local power of Evaluation Committees (Comités de Evaluación) that, through standardized criteria and methodologies of evaluation and selection, verify compliance with the constitutional and legal requirements of the participating persons and select the four best evaluated persons for each office who have the technical knowledge necessary for the performance of the office and have distinguished themselves for their honesty, good public reputation, competence and academic and professional background in the exercise of legal activity;

c)The refinement by each Evaluation Committee of the list of the best evaluated persons by public drawing of lots, as well as the nomination by each state power of two candidacies for each specialty subject to election, observing gender parity, and

d)The evaluation of the performance of the persons who exercise judging that are elected during their first year of exercise, as well as of their training and permanent updating by the local Judicial Discipline Court.

The magistrates and judges shall last in the exercise of their office nine years, may be reelected and, if they are, may only be deprived of their positions in the terms determined by the Constitutions and the Laws of Responsibilities of Public Officials of the States.

The magistrates and judges shall receive adequate and non-waivable remuneration, which may not be greater than that established for the person who is the head of the Presidency of the Republic in the corresponding budget and shall not be reduced during their office.

IV.In accordance with the bases established in this Constitution and the general laws on the matter, the Constitutions and laws of the States in electoral matters shall guarantee that:

a)The elections of the governors, of the members of the local legislatures and of the members of the municipal councils are held through universal, free, secret and direct suffrage; and that the election day take place on the first Sunday of June of the corresponding year. The States whose electoral days are held in the year of the federal elections and do not coincide on the same date as the federal election day shall not be bound by this last provision;

b)In the exercise of the electoral function, in charge of the electoral authorities, the guiding principles are those of certainty, impartiality, independence, legality, maximum publicity and objectivity;

c)The authorities in charge of the organization of the elections and the jurisdictional ones that resolve the controversies on the matter enjoy autonomy in their functioning, and independence in their decisions, in accordance with the following and what the laws determine:

1o. The local public electoral bodies shall have a superior governing body composed of a President Councillor and six electoral councillors, with the right to voice and vote; the Executive Secretary and the representatives of the political parties shall attend the sessions only with the right to voice; each political party shall have one representative in said body.

2o. The President Councillor and the electoral councillors shall be designated by the General Council of the National Electoral Institute (Instituto Nacional Electoral), in the terms provided by law. The state electoral councillors must be natives of the corresponding federal entity or have an effective residence of at least five years prior to their designation, and comply with the requirements and the profile that accredits their suitability for the office established by law. In the event that a vacancy of a state electoral councillor occurs, the General Council of the National Electoral Institute shall make the corresponding designation in terms of this article and the law. If the vacancy occurs during the first four years of their office, a substitute shall be elected to conclude the term. If the absence occurs within the last three years, a councillor shall be elected for a new term.

3o. The state electoral councillors shall have a period of service of seven years and may not be reelected; they shall receive a remuneration in accordance with their functions and may be removed by the General Council of the National Electoral Institute, for the serious causes established by law.

4o. The state electoral councillors and other public officials established by law may not have another employment, office or commission, with the exception of unpaid ones in teaching, scientific, cultural, research or charitable activities. Nor may they assume a public office in the bodies arising from the elections in whose organization and development they have participated, nor be nominated for an office of popular election or assume an office of party leadership, during the two years following the end of their office.

5o. The electoral jurisdictional authorities shall be composed of an odd number of magistrates, who shall be elected by two thirds of the members present of the Senate, after a public call, in the terms determined by law.

6o. The local public electoral bodies shall have public officials invested with public faith for acts of an electoral nature, whose attributions and functioning shall be regulated by law.

7o. The challenges against the acts that, in accordance with base V of Article 41 of this Constitution, the National Electoral Institute carries out by reason of the local electoral processes, shall be resolved by the Electoral Court of the Federal Judiciary (Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación), as determined by law.

d)The competent electoral authorities of an administrative character may agree with the National Electoral Institute that it take charge of the organization of the local electoral processes;

e)The political parties are constituted only by citizens without intervention of trade organizations, or with a different corporate purpose and without there being corporate affiliation. Likewise, they have recognized the right to request the registration of candidates for offices of popular election, with the exception of the provisions of Article 2°., subsection A, sections III and VII, of this Constitution.

f)The electoral authorities may only intervene in the internal affairs of the parties in the terms that they expressly indicate;

The local political party that does not obtain at least three percent of the total valid votes cast in any of the elections held for the renewal of the local Executive or Legislative Power shall have its registration cancelled. This provision shall not apply to the national political parties that participate in the local elections;

g)The political parties receive, in an equitable manner, public financing for their ordinary permanent activities and those tending toward obtaining the vote during the electoral processes. In the same manner, the procedure is established for the liquidation of the parties that lose their registration and the destination of their assets and remainders;

h)The criteria are set to establish the limits on the expenditures of the political parties in their pre-campaigns and election campaigns, as well as the maximum amounts that the contributions of their members and sympathizers have;

i)The political parties have access to radio and television, in accordance with the rules established by subsection B of base III of Article 41 of this Constitution;

j)The rules are set for the pre-campaigns and the election campaigns of the political parties, as well as the sanctions for those who infringe them. In all cases, the duration of the campaigns shall be from sixty to ninety days for the election of governor and from thirty to sixty days when only local deputies or municipal councils are elected; the pre-campaigns may not last more than two thirds of the respective election campaigns;

k)The regime applicable to the nomination, registration, rights and obligations of independent candidates is regulated, guaranteeing their right to public financing and to access to radio and television in the terms established in this Constitution and in the corresponding laws;

l)A system of means of challenge is established so that all electoral acts and resolutions are invariably subject to the principle of legality. Likewise, that the assumptions and rules are indicated for the carrying out, in the administrative and jurisdictional spheres, of total or partial recounts of voting;

m)The grounds for nullity of the elections of governor, local deputies and municipal councils are set, as well as the convenient periods for the disposition of all the challenge instances, taking into account the principle of definitiveness of the stages of the electoral processes, and

n)At least one local election is verified on the same date on which any of the federal elections takes place;

o)The crimes are classified and the infractions in electoral matters determined, as well as the sanctions that must be imposed for them.

p)The bases and requirements are set so that in the elections citizens request their registration as candidates in order to be voted for independently for all offices of popular election, in the terms of Article 35 of this Constitution.

V.The Constitutions and laws of the States shall institute Courts of Administrative Justice (Tribunales de Justicia Administrativa), endowed with full autonomy to issue their rulings and establish their organization, functioning, procedures and, where appropriate, remedies against their resolutions. The Courts shall be in charge of settling the controversies that arise between the local and municipal public administration and private persons; imposing, in the terms provided by law, the sanctions on local and municipal public officials for serious administrative responsibility, and on private persons who incur in acts linked to serious administrative infractions; as well as charging the responsible parties with the payment of the compensation (indemnity) and pecuniary sanctions deriving from the damages and losses that affect the State or Municipal Public Treasury or the patrimony of the local or municipal public entities.

For the investigation, substantiation and sanction of the administrative responsibilities of the members of the Judicial Power of the States, the provisions of the respective Constitutions shall be observed, without prejudice to the attributions of the audit entities over the management, custody and application of public resources;

VI.The employment relationships between the states and their employees shall be governed by the laws issued by the legislatures of the states based on the provisions of Article 123 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and its regulatory provisions; and

VII.The Federation and the States, in the terms of law, may agree on the assumption by the latter of the exercise of their functions, the execution and operation of works and the provision of public services, when economic and social development makes it necessary.

The States shall be empowered to enter into those agreements with their Municipalities, so that these assume the provision of the services or the attention of the functions referred to in the preceding paragraph.

VIII.The Constitutions of the States, in terms of the general law, shall define the competence of the bodies in charge of the comptrollership or their equivalents of the executive, legislative and judicial powers and other obligated subjects responsible for guaranteeing the right of access to public information and the protection of personal data in the possession of the obligated subjects, in accordance with the principles and bases established by Article 6o. of this Constitution and the general law issued by the Congress of the Union to establish the bases, general principles and procedures for the exercise of this right.

IX.The Constitutions of the States shall guarantee that the functions of the prosecution of justice are carried out based on the principles of autonomy, efficiency, impartiality, legality, objectivity, professionalism and responsibility, as well as with a gender perspective and respect for human rights.

In order to protect the right of women to a life free of violence, the institutions of the prosecution of justice shall have specialized prosecutor's offices for the investigation of crimes related to gender violence against women.

X.The Legislatures of the federal entities, observing at all times the supremacy of the national symbols, may legislate on matters of state symbols, such as: anthem, coat of arms and flag, in order to foster cultural heritage, history and local identity.

In the sphere of the Judicial Powers of the States, funds, trusts, mandates or analogous contracts that are not provided in the law may not be created nor kept in operation.