Mexico's ruling party headed toward control of newly elected Supreme Court, vote tallies show

Politico

3 days ago

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's ruling Morena party appeared to be heading toward control over the Supreme Court, preliminary vote tallies of the country's first judicial election indicated.
While votes were still being counted Tuesday for the majority of the 2,600 federal, state and local judge positions up for grabs in Sunday's elections, results rolled in for the nine Supreme Court positions.
The majority of the newly elected justices share strong ties and ideological alignments with the ruling party, shifting a once fairly balanced high court into the hands of the very party that overhauled the judicial system to elect judges for the first time.
Experts warned the shift would undercut checks and balances in the Latin American nation: The governing party would now be close to controlling all three branches of government, and President Claudia Sheinbaum and her party would have an easier path to push through their agenda.
'We're watching as power is falling almost entirely into the hands of one party,' said Georgina De la Fuente, election specialist with the Mexican consulting firm Strategia Electoral. 'There isn't any balance of power.'
Despite that, officials have continued to fiercely reject democratic concerns.
Some of those headed toward election were members or former members of the party. A number of them, who were Supreme Court justices prior to the election, were appointed by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum's mentor who pushed through the judicial overhaul last year.
Others were advisers to the president or the party or campaigned with politically aligned visions for the judiciary.
Not all of the prospective winners were explicitly aligned with Morena. One standout was Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, an Indigenous lawyer from the southern state of Oaxaca. He has no clear party affiliation, though Sheinbaum said repeatedly she hoped to have an Indigenous judge on the court and said on Tuesday she was happy to see he would be.
Critics had feared that Morena would emerge from the election with control of the judiciary.
The vote came after months of fierce debate, prompted when López Obrador and the party jammed through the reforms for judges to be elected instead of being appointed based on merits. The overhaul will notably limit the Supreme Court as a counterweight to the president.
Judges, experts and political opposition say the reform was an attempt to take advantage of high popularity levels to stack courts in favor of Morena. Sheinbaum and her mentor have insisted that electing judges will root out corruption in a system most Mexicans agree is broken.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum brushed off complaints by Mexico's opposition – which called for a boycott of the vote – that the Supreme Court was now unfairly stacked against them, saying 'they're the ones who decided not to participate in the election.'
The elections were marred by low participation — about 13% — and confusion by voters who struggled to understand the new system, something opponents quickly latched onto as a failure.
De la Fuente said Morena is likely to use its new lack of counterweight in the high court to push through rounds of reforms, including reforms to Mexico's electoral systems, a proposal that has stirred controversy and was previously blocked by courts.
Guadalupe Taddei Zavala, chief counselor of Mexico's electoral authority, on Tuesday rejected democratic concerns. 'I don't see any (constitutional) crisis after the election,' she said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 93% of the ballots had been tallied.