Overview

• On June 1, more than 3,000 candidates vied for roughly 880 federal judgeships and hundreds of local magistrate posts in Mexico’s inaugural direct judicial election.
• The reform, passed in September 2024 under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and implemented by President Claudia Sheinbaum, aims to tackle deep-rooted corruption and impunity.
• Early reports indicate voter turnout lagged as citizens struggled with the complexity of evaluating hundreds of judicial hopefuls on the ballot.
• Rights group Defensorxs identified around 20 “high risk” contenders with past ties to cartels, stoking fears of organized crime infiltration in the selection process.
• Government officials reject claims that the vote politicizes the bench or enables criminal takeover, arguing that public elections will strengthen court accountability.