Low Turnout in Mexico's Far-Reaching Judicial Election Fuels Legitimacy Concerns

New York Times

2 days ago

Mexico's sweeping reorganization of its judicial system got off to a rocky start. The nationwide election of thousands of judges over the weekend was marked by an exceptionally high level of abstention, with nearly 90 percent of voters opting not to take part.
Only 12.6 percent to 13.3 percent of voters cast ballots in Sunday's election, according to estimates from the national electoral authority, fueling legitimacy concerns. That means the contentious judicial election had one of the lowest turnouts in any federal election since the early 2000s, when Mexico transitioned to a democracy.
The dismal turnout points to the confusion and indecision across the country over the election, which shifts the judiciary from an appointment-based system to one in which voters choose judges. Supporters of the plan have argued that it makes the system more democratic, while critics have characterized it as a power grab by the governing leftist Morena party.
Some voters who did turn out expressed puzzlement over the bewildering number of candidates vying for nearly 2,700 judgeships, including those who will sit on the Supreme Court and hundreds of other federal and local tribunals. Electoral monitoring groups reported that several voters simply used cheat sheets provided by Morena, President Claudia Sheinbaum's party.
'It did not seem to me to be a democratic exercise — it was a clear attempt to manipulate the vote,' said Laurence Pantin, an expert on judicial independence and director of Juicio Justo, or Fair Trial, a nonprofit organization that seeks to broaden access to justice in Mexico.
Ms. Pantin and other volunteers said they had detected several irregularities on Sunday, including voters carrying printed sheets indicating which candidates to select, multiple people entering voting booths at once and voters taking photos of their filled ballots — a possible indication of vote buying.
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