{"id":857177,"date":"2025-06-21T19:13:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T00:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/21\/turnout-low-as-mexico-votes-in-controversial-judicial-election\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T19:13:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T00:13:30","slug":"turnout-low-as-mexico-votes-in-controversial-judicial-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/21\/turnout-low-as-mexico-votes-in-controversial-judicial-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Turnout low as Mexico votes in controversial judicial election"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Sheinbaum labels vote a \u2018success\u2019, but experts warn criminals could use it to infiltrate judiciary.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A landmark vote to select judges in Mexico has been labelled a \u201csuccess\u201d by the president despite a sparse turnout and widespread confusion.<\/p>\n

Just 13 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday\u2019s vote<\/a> to overhaul the court system. President Claudia Sheinbaum proclaimed that the election would make Mexico more democratic, but critics accused her of seeking to take control of the judiciary, while analysts warned it could open the way for criminals to seize influence.<\/p>\n

The vote, a cornerstone policy of Sheinbaum and predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, aimed to fill about 880 federal judicial positions, including Supreme Court justices, as well as hundreds of local judges and magistrates.<\/p>\n

But many voters said they struggled to make informed choices among a flood of largely unknown candidates, who were barred from openly disclosing party affiliations or engaging in widespread campaigning.<\/p>\n

\u2018Largely empty\u2019 polling stations<\/h2>\n

Al Jazeera\u2019s John Holman reported from Mexico City that polling stations were \u201clargely empty\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn what the government planned to be a historic day, the majority of Mexicans prefer to do something else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, Sheinbaum hailed the election as \u201ca complete success\u201d that makes the country a democratic trailblazer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMexico is a country that is only becoming more free, just and democratic because that is the will of the people,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n

The reform, defended by supporters as necessary to cleanse a corrupt justice system, was originally championed by Sheinbaum\u2019s predecessor, Lopez Obrador, who frequently clashed with the old judiciary.<\/p>\n

\u2018Painstaking process\u2019<\/h2>\n

Experts had warned<\/a> that turnout would be unusually low due to the sheer number of candidates and the unfamiliarity of judicial voting.<\/p>\n

To be properly informed, voters \u201cwould have to spend hours and hours researching the track record and the profiles of each of the hundreds of candidates\u201d, said David Shirk, a professor at the University of San Diego.<\/p>\n

That concern was echoed by voters at the polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not very prepared,\u201d said Lucia Calderon, a 63-year-old university teacher. \u201cI think we need more information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francisco Torres de Leon, a 62-year-old retired teacher in southern Mexico, called the process \u201cpainstaking because there are too many candidates and positions that they\u2019re going to fill\u201d.<\/p>\n

Beyond logistical challenges, analysts and rights groups raised fears that powerful criminal groups could use the elections to further infiltrate the judiciary.<\/p>\n

While corruption already exists, \u201cthere is reason to believe that elections may be more easily infiltrated by organised crime than other methods of judicial selection\u201d, said Margaret Satterthwaite, the United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.<\/p>\n

Although all candidates were supposed to have legal experience, no criminal record and a \u201cgood reputation\u201d, several have been linked to organised crime and corruption scandals.<\/p>\n

Rights group Defensorxs identified about 20 candidates it considers \u201chigh risk\u201d, including Silvia Delgado, a former lawyer for Sinaloa cartel cofounder Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman.<\/p>\n

Another candidate, in the state of Durango, previously served nearly six years in a US prison for drug offences.<\/p>\n

Election results are expected in the coming days. A second round of judicial elections is scheduled for 2027 to fill hundreds more positions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: <\/p>\n

Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Diego Stoval
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Sheinbaum labels vote a \u2018success\u2019, but experts warn criminals could use it to infiltrate judiciary. A landmark vote to select judges in Mexico has been labelled a \u201csuccess\u201d by the president despite a sparse turnout and widespread confusion. Just 13 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday\u2019s vote to overhaul the court system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":857178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24857,40306],"tags":[8301,43020],"class_list":{"0":"post-857177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mexico","8":"category-turnout","9":"tag-mexico","10":"tag-turnout"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}