Yonhap News reported on Monday that Mexico’s Election Commission (INE) will hold a 10-hour vote to select judges from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the day. With 153,782 voters scheduled to participate in the vote, a total of 881 federal judges will be selected out of 3,396 candidates, including nine justices of the Supreme Court. Initially, some 18,000 applicants participated, but the commission narrowed down 3,422 candidates to candidates. Some of the candidates resigned while campaigning. “We will be setting an example for justice today,” said Guadalupe Tadei, president of Mexico’s election commission. Earlier, Mexico’s parliament voted on a constitutional amendment that calls for introducing a direct system of judges to elect all judges by referendum.
The constitutional amendment also includes reducing the number of justices (11 → 9), shortening the term of justices (15 → 12 years), abolishing the lifetime pension for justices, and prohibiting judges from exceeding the cap on pay for presidents. AFP reported that Mexico is the first country where citizens directly elect all judges in the judiciary. In the U.S., some states also elect judges themselves. Mexico’s election watchdog explained that it will take about 10 days to complete the vote count. Local media including Eluniversal and Reforma predicted that the turnout would be low due to lack of publicity and low interest. Only about 8,400 polling stations were set up, about half of those for presidential and general elections (17,000). Some of them are concerned about possible election fraud. As there are many positions to be elected, one voter received up to 13 ballots in some cases, and some voters tried to head to the polling station with a kind of cheating paper. The NEC reportedly learned about the situation in advance and decided not to bring it to the polling station. The paper, which is folded in layers and resembles a musical instrument, has the name of the candidate for judge. The prosecution launched an investigation into the case of 25 boxes containing ballots disappeared in the southern state of Chiapas on the previous day.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
