Notary Public Guadalupe Díaz Carranza seeks to be the first woman to chair the National Notary Association of Mexico since its creation in 1955.

Díaz Carranza, Notary Public 83 of Oaxaca, will compete against Nicolás Maluf Maloff, Notary Public from the State of Mexico, in a voting session to be held on Saturday during the last day of the 35th Congress of the national association.

Díaz Carranza’s trajectory as a Notary Public dates back to 2004 when she received the appointment. She’s also been president of the Notary Public Association of the State of Oaxaca twice, and vice-president of Notary Public National Association for the South two times as well. She currently holds the position of Financial Secretary for the association.

As part of her campaign “Contigo Sí,” she toured 29 states and 39 cities to collect the concerns of approximately 4,200 notaries in the country with the intention to have a campaign program.

Among her proposals is to facilitate education across the country so that members don’t have to go to Mexico City to receive training and education on the matter. “We plan to have an itinerant presidency by bringing the benefits of the national association to all members in each one of the entities,” Díaz said in an interview for El Universal newspaper.

If chosen, she said she would also invest in technology to improve the security tools used to protect notaries and users, like the notary’s digital stamp. She would also use biometric devices to help identify clients and avoid identity fraud.

Scandal, however, has been part of the voting process with both candidates fielding a diverse range of accusations.

As for Días Carranza, some members have accused her of having falsified her birth certificate to make it appear she was 30, instead of 28 years old, when she was appointed Notary Public (the local law states 30 as the legal age to become a notary). Meanwhile her competitor, Maluf, is accused of having ties to a Mexican drug cartel.

Nonetheless, on Saturday, 1,400 members of the association will choose one of the above as a new president for the 2023-2024 term.

While state law regulates notarial practice, the national association is in charge of unifying and fortifying the profession and representing its members. Notaries are appointed by the government to act as witnesses and to certify the validity of legal documents, and to facilitate judicial administration. There are an estimated 4,600 notarial offices in the country.

With reports from El Universal, Debate, and Proceso