Why Mexico's Judicial Election Matters

New York Times

4 days ago

Mexican voters face a daunting task on Sunday.
For the first time in the country's history, they will elect more than 2,600 judges and magistrates, including those who will sit on the Supreme Court and hundreds of other federal, state and local tribunals.
The election will move the judiciary from an appointment-based system to one in which voters will choose their judges. Supporters of the overhaul argue it makes the system more democratic and counteracts problems like nepotism and corruption. Critics say it risks giving the governing party more power and opens the courts to candidates who lack experience and qualifications, or could be influenced by criminal groups like cartels.
The experiment is so ambitious, divisive and confusing that it is difficult to know how it will unfold: A single day of voting will enact the most far-reaching judicial overhaul ever by a large democracy.
Here's what to know about Mexico's election for judges, how it works and why it matters.
Why are Mexicans voting for judges?
The election is the culmination of a contentious process in which Morena, the governing party, and its allies amended the Constitution last year to overhaul the court system.
The idea to elect judges by popular vote was proposed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and championed by his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Mr. López Obrador pushed the plan after the Supreme Court issued a series of rulings that blocked some of his government's plans — such as weakening Mexico's electoral watchdog agency and putting the National Guard under military control — and federal judges issued orders to suspend some of his flagship projects, citing environmental concerns.
Angered by those rulings, which he called politically motivated, Mr. López Obrador urged his base to help cement Morena's control of Congress. The large majorities secured by the party during last year's general election have since allowed its lawmakers to pass a slate of constitutional changes that will overhaul the court system.
How will the election work?
On Sunday, voters will elect half of Mexico's judiciary, and the rest in 2027.
This year, nearly 880 federal judgeships, from district judges up to Supreme Court justices, will be up for grabs. In addition, 19 of the country's 32 states will elect local judges and magistrates to fill about 1,800 seats.
More than 7,700 candidates are running for those jobs. Unlike regular elections, where political parties can finance their candidates' campaigns, aspiring judges are not allowed to rely on public or private funding, forcing them instead to use their own resources and guerrilla marketing on social media to attract attention.
To try to help voters, the agency overseeing the votecreated an online platform so that people can familiarize themselves with the candidates. Still, even some supporters of the overhaul acknowledge that it will be difficult for voters to make informed choices among thousands of largely unknown candidates.
In a recent poll that Ms. Sheinbaum mentioned during her daily news conference to try to show support for Mexico's experiment, 72 percent of about 1,000 voters surveyed said the judicial election was needed. But only a small fraction of them, 23 percent, knew who the candidates were.
'They are going to vote blindly,' Heidi Osuna, the director of the agency that oversaw the poll, told a radio interviewer this week. Many uninformed voters, she said, most likely 'won't turn out to vote.'
Will the election improve the justice system?
This has been the subject of debate for months.
Supporters of the election often talk about a system rife with corruption and nepotism, where justice is more easily accessible to those who can afford it and where dozens of judges have been co-opted by one or more of Mexico's violent cartels.
In fact, Mexicans perceive judges to be among the country's most corrupt officials, second only to traffic agents.
A system in which judges are elected, proponents say, will sever the ties that some have with powerful criminals, corrupt officials and members of the elite. Instead, they argue, judges will now respond to the interests of those who voted them in: the Mexican people.
While critics concede that Mexico's judiciary faces huge problems and is in need of deep reform, they say this is not the way to fix it.
Several experts have argued that the overhaul will politicize courts that should hand down justice independently, and that the governing Morena party, which already holds the presidency and Congress, will wield extraordinary influence over the vote. They have also said that a system of direct elections risks letting underqualified candidates become judges and opens the door to greater cartel influence.
When will the results be known?
Mexico votes with paper ballots, and they must all be counted by hand.
Unlike other Mexican elections, when preliminary results are known on election night, results for the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court, will become clear in the days after the vote.
The nationwide vote counts that will determine the final results will take place on June 15.