The National Electoral Institute (INE) awarded the company Cosmocolor SA de CV, owned by the former deputy of the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) Jorge Kahwagi, the open 2026-2031 contract for the production of the new voting credential, which seeks to have the most advanced security elements worldwide.
The INE announced that the contract with Cosmocolor SA de CV will be in joint participation with the company Icards Solutions SA de CV and Talleres Graphicos de México. In addition, each credential will have a unit value of approximately 11.80 Mexican pesos.
It is projected that between June 2026 and May 2031, between 84.9 and 94.1 million voting credentials will be issued throughout the country, so the amount that the INE could pay to Cosmocolor It will be 1,110 million pesossubject to the exchange rate of the US dollar in each year.
The institute explained that “the process guaranteed strict compliance with the provisions of the Policies, Bases and Guidelines on Acquisitions, Leases and Services (POBALINES) of the Federal Electoral Institute, and other current regulations and with the principles of transparency, maximum publicity and competition.”
“With this award, the INE ensures the production of a voting credential with high standards of security, quality and innovation, at acceptable and verified prices,” the institute said in a statement.
On August 7, the General Council of the INE presented the new voting credential model, with the same security standards that the current printing includes, but with advanced technologies that guarantee the authenticity of the document.
In that day’s session, the counselor Dania Ravel detailed some elements of the new Voting Credential model, such as microtextosspecial inks, high-density QR codes and touch components.
“The recent update of the voting credential model reflects our commitment to cutting-edge technological standards and international security practices (…) the new elements not only make it safer, but also more accessible, especially for people with visual disabilities,” Dania Ravel highlighted at that time.
Why was Cosmocolor chosen?
The INE detailed that three bidders participated in the procedure whose proposals were received in person: Cosmocolor with Icards Solutions and Talleres Graphicos de México; Litho Forms; and Veridos México in joint participation with Giesecke and Devrient de México and Gráficas Corona.
“All companies were verified in the sanctioned supplier systems, without any impediment to participating,” the institute said.
However, In the technical results, Cosmocolor obtained 57.18 points; Veridos Mexico, 45.69 points; and Litho Formas was disqualified for not complying with all the specifications established in the Technical Annex.
In addition to the technical evaluations carried out by the INE, laboratory tests were applied to the voting credential samples presented by the bidders by the Materials Research Institute of the UNAM, to evaluate and verify the quality and durability of the inputs.
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