Luis Carlos Ugalde

Luis Carlos Ugalde Ramírez (born 1966 in Mexico City) is a Mexican scholar who served as president of the Federal Electoral Institute from 2003 to 2007.

Luis Carlos Ugalde received a Ph.D. in Political Science (1999) and a Master's Degree in Political Science (1994) and Public Administration (1992), all from Columbia University. He also holds a B.A. in Economics from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) (1990).

Dr. Ugalde has combined a solid career in academics and consulting with high-ranking positions within the Mexican government. Most notably, he served as president of Mexico´s Electoral Commission (Instituto Federal Electoral, IFE) from 2003-2007, presiding over the institution during the country´s bitterly contested 2006 presidential election.

Dr. Ugalde has taught at various universities in Mexico and the United States, among them the InstitutoTecnológicoAutónomo de México (ITAM), the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE), Harvard University, Georgetown University and American University. In 2011 he was a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C.

In addition to his academic career, he has worked in the Mexican government. He was Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Energy in 1997 and Chief of Staff at the Embassy of Mexico to the United States of America, from 1997 to 2000. Ugalde showed political ambitions form an early stage and was linked to the long time ruling party of Mexico, the PRI, where he served as part of the idelogy commission, linked to Jesus Reyes Heroles.

He was appointed president of the Federal Electoral Institute by Congress in October 2003. During the 2006 Presidential Election, Ugalde came under fire, as one of the candidates demanded a recount in the midst of a widely questioned election. The electoral authorities under Ugalde were accused of being complicit in electoral fraud. Eventually, the pressure from the political parties resulted in a legal reform that would attempt to rectify the illegalities that occurred in the 2006 elections.

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