Politics: Judicial reform running into serious obstacles with the election of judges just four months away
Morena and the Fourth Transformation’s “Judicial Reform” is encountering major obstacles in its implementation. The reform, based on the popular election of Supreme Court justices, judges, and magistrates on a federal, state, and local level, is viewed as a way of eliminating what has been the major obstacle to the 4T’s legislation codifying radical change in government economic, political, and social policy, namely, Supreme Court rulings declaring the laws unconstitutional.
This completely new and unprecedented way of selecting judges through popular election has been highly questioned. In addition, from the start, major logistical and organization difficulties arose with the decision to cut the National Electoral Institute’s budget for the special election by 50%. This will translate into fewer polling stations (half of those that are normally installed in elections); a lack of personnel to train poll watchers; limited publicity to encourage citizens to vote; and a weaker, if not deficient, organization of the judicial electoral process as a whole.
With the election just four months away, legal challenges and judges’ rulings blocking the vote, the refusal of the members of the Judicial Branch Evaluation Committee to continue selecting candidates to appear on the ballot, and a confrontation between the Federal Electoral Tribunal ( which is close to the government) and the Supreme Court have bogged the process down. With the candidate lists still undefined and the use of a lottery in some cases to choose the contenders, serious questions have been raised concerning the quality of the candidates and whether they have the experience necessary to do their job properly if elected.
All this will very likely translate into a poor turnout at the polls. Estimates are that only 10-15% of eligible voters will participate, which will seriously erode the credibility and legitimacy of the results. What seems more than likely is that the winning justices and judges will be very close to the 4T and its government, with all that entails for the idea of an autonomous and impartial system of justice.
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