Mexico Goes to Polls to Elect All Members of the Judiciary

Mexico goes to polls on Sunday, June 1, to elect all members at all levels of the judiciary. Each voter will receive six different ballots, each with a distinct color. Each ballot corresponds to a specific position within the judiciary: ministers of the Supreme Court, magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal (both Superior and Regional Chambers), magistrates of the Judicial Disciplinary Tribunal, circuit magistrates, and district judges.

The process for filling out the ballots

The voter has to carefully read each ballot and identify which office it corresponds to. All candidates will be listed with their name, a serial number, and the initials of the State power (executive, legislative, or judiciary) that proposed the candidate.
Then the voter has to fill in the boxes with the serial numbers of their chosen candidates. The number of candidates to be elected on each ballot depends on the position, for example, each voter has to vote for nine candidates (five women and four men) as Supreme Court magistrates.
Then each voter shall verify that they have voted on all six ballots and check that everything is marked correctly before turning in the ballots.
At the end of the process, each ballot paper has to be folded and all six have to be placed together in the same ballot box. Although the elections are for six different positions, all ballots go into one ballot box.

Common mistakes to avoid so that a vote is not canceled: filling in one box with more than one number; crossing out, drawing or writing phrases; or leaving the ballot blank.

To vote in the judicial election, the citizen will need a valid INE (National Electoral Institute) credential. The INE’s web page offers the voter the possibility to consult the candidates’ profiles and to practice filling out the ballots. Keeping the numbers of the one’s chosen candidates written down on a paper may help a voter to vote faster and more easily. The polling stations will remain open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (local time.)

Sheinbaum: Justice in México Strengthened With Judicial Reform

How the election works
The current Mexican government has sought to separate the de facto economic power from political and judicial powers. The reform of the judiciary and the judicial election is a step in the process: to separate the de facto economic powers from justice, guaranteeing that all people, irrespective of their origin, economic conditions, and privileges or lack thereof, have access to real justice. The aim of the judicial election is to create a judiciary that will work for the people.

These elections, through which the people of Mexico will directly elect judges, magistrates and ministers of the courts, originate from the deep democratic conviction promoted by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. From the beginning of his term (2018-2024), AMLO condemned the privileges, corruption, and the disconnect between the judiciary and the people. Under his leadership, a transformative proposal began to take shape: that it should not be the political elites or capitalist class who decide who dispenses justice, but instead, the people should be empowered to decide.

With broad popular support and after years of public debate, the initiative advanced in Congress and opened the way for a historic reform: democratization of the judiciary. This proposal seeks to put an end to the old model of justice at the service of the powerful in order to make way for a new system that would be more transparent, fairer and closer to the citizenry. The election by popular vote of ministers, magistrates and judges represents an unprecedented step towards a system where justice is not a privilege but a guaranteed right. Bolivia is the only nation in Latin America that has a similar process and only the higher level judges are elected by the people there.

The continuity of this transformation is today in the hands of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has reaffirmed her commitment to a truly popular judicial system. Her strong support for this reform is a guarantee that the process initiated by AMLO will not be a historical exception but a new stage in the democratic life of Mexico.

(Telesur)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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