President Sheinbaum labels vote a ‘success’, but experts warn criminals could use it to infiltrate judiciary.
Published On 2 Jun 2025
A landmark vote to select judges in Mexico has been labelled a “success” by the president despite a sparse turnout and widespread confusion.
Just 13 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday’s vote 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.
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.
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.
‘Largely empty’ polling stations
Al Jazeera’s John Holman reported from Mexico City that polling stations were “largely empty”.
“On what the government planned to be a historic day, the majority of Mexicans prefer to do something else,” he said.
Still, Sheinbaum hailed the election as “a complete success” that makes the country a democratic trailblazer.
“Mexico is a country that is only becoming more free, just and democratic because that is the will of the people,” the president said.
The reform, defended by supporters as necessary to cleanse a corrupt justice system, was originally championed by Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Lopez Obrador, who frequently clashe