Mexico's Judicial-Election Farce
Mexico held elections Sunday to fill nine seats on its new Supreme Court, five seats on its new judicial disciplinary tribunal, half the seats on federal circuit and district courts, and two vacancies on the Federal Electoral Tribunal. Learning the full results could take a week or more. The rest of the circuit and lower-court bench will be elected in 2027.
Government critics and independent analysts warned that the sweeping overhaul of the judiciary through popular elections would politicize the courts, putting them under the thumb of the Morena Party's corporatist populism. They aren't wrong. It's the goal of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who pushed through the constitutional change as he was leaving office last year. This way when the state wants to discriminate against private investors in favor of its own interests, property rights and contracts won't get in the way.
AMLO, as the former president is known, wants Mexico to look more like it did in the 1970s. This is a leap in that direction.
The number of open judicial seats varied across the country with 19 states also electing nearly 1,800 local judges. The average voter in Mexico City was given nine ballots and asked to choose 51 judges out of 293 candidates, according to Mexico City-based Integralia, a political-risk consultancy. Most citizens would have found it almost impossible to be well-informed about their decisions.
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