A special election vote in which judges are directly elected by the public began on the 1st in Mexico (local time).
The Mexican Electoral Management Commission (INE) announced that it would conduct voting for the election of judges from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a total of 10 hours. A total of 1,005,7828 voters are expected to participate in the vote.
Through this election, a total of 881 federal judges will be selected, including 9 Supreme Court justices, from among 3,396 candidates. Initially, around 18,000 applicants participated, but the commission reduced it to 3,422 candidates. Some candidates withdrew during the campaigning process.
Guadalupe Tadei, commissioner of the Mexican Electoral Management Commission, said, "We will choose a model for justice today."
Previously, the Mexican Congress passed a constitutional amendment that includes the introduction of a direct election system for all judges by public vote. This amendment also includes a reduction in the number of Supreme Court justices (from 11 to 9), a reduction in the term of Supreme Court justices (from 15 to 12 years), the abolition of life pensions for Supreme Court justices, and restrictions on judges' salaries exceeding the presidential salary cap.
The AFP news agency reported that Mexico is the first country to directly elect all judges within the judiciary. In the United States, some states also allow voters to directly elect judges.
The Mexican Electoral Management Commission estimated that it would take about ten days to complete the overall counting of ballots.
However, local media have raised concerns about low voter turnout and the possibility of fraudulent voting.