Mexico's ruling party is heading to control the newly elected Supreme Court

Mexico City (AP) – Mexico's ruling Morena Party appears to be heading towards control of the Supreme Court, a preliminary vote for the country's first judicial election.

While the votes are still counting the majority of 2,600 federal, state and district magistrate positions in the judicial elections held on Sunday, the results involve nine Supreme Court positions.

Most newly elected judges have strong ties and ideological consistency with the ruling party, transferring a once balanced high court to the party, which overhauled the judicial system to elect judges for the first time.

Experts warn that the shift will weaken checks and balances in Latin American countries: now the Council will approach all three branches that control the government, and President Claudia Sheinbaum and her party will have an easier way to push their agenda.

“We are watching power fall almost entirely into the hands of a political party,” said Georgina de La Fuente, an election expert at the strategic elections of Mexican consulting firms. “There is no balance of power.”

Leaning courts and indigenous judges

Some of the people who went to the election were members of the party or former members. Many of them were elected justices of the former Supreme Court, appointed by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a mentor to Sheinbaum, who promoted the judicial overhaul in the judicial overhaul last year.

Others are presidents or party advisers, or political attitudes toward the judiciary.

Not all quasi-winners are explicitly aligned with Morena. Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, an indigenous lawyer from southern Oaxaca, is an outstanding person. He has no clear partisan affiliation, although Sheinbaum repeatedly said she would like an Indigenous judge in court.

Political Controversy

Critics are concerned that Morena will stand out from the election.

The vote was followed by a fierce debate, prompting López Obrador and the party to be deceived in the reform to elect judges rather than appoint judges based on merits. The overhaul would specifically limit the Supreme Court as the president's counterweight.

Critics say judicial reform is an attempt to use high visibility to stack courts in support of the party. Sheinbaum and her mentor insist that the election judges will stand out in a system that most Mexicans agree.

“People who say Mexico has authoritarianism are lying,” Sheinbaum said during the vote. “Mexico is a country that will only become more liberal, just and democratic, because that is the will of the people.”

The election was hurt by lower participation (about 13%) and the confusion of voters struggling to understand the new voting system, which was a situation where the opponent quickly fell into failure.

Delafuente said Morena would likely use his new weight of grievances in the High Court to push for a round of reforms, including election changes.

More than 85% of the votes have been counted late Monday and the count will continue overnight.

Supreme Court Candidate

– Hugo Aguilar Ortiz was the biggest surprise of the election. Indigenous lawyers lead all voters, including several current Supreme Court justices. He has been called a legal activist fighting for the rights of indigenous Mexicans and criticized the judiciary for corruption.

– Lenia Batres is already the Supreme Court Justice, appointed by López Obrador. She was a former congresswoman, a member of Morena, and apparently an ally of the Mexican president.

– Yasmín Esquivel is the Supreme Court Justice appointed by López Obrador. She focused her campaign on a modern justice system and promoted gender equality. She was at the center of the 2022 controversy when she was accused of stealing the paper. She is considered an ally of the Morena Party.

– Loretta Ortiz is a justice of the Supreme Court appointed by López Obrador. She also served in Congress and resigned from Morena in 2018 to serve as a judge for independence. Still, she is an ally of the party.

– María Estela Ríos González was a lawyer who served as legal counsel to López Obrador, first when he was the city mayor of Mexico and later when he became president. She has a long history as a civil servant, working on labor law and many indigenous issues.

– Giovanni Figueroa Mejía is a lawyer with Nayarit with a Ph.D. in Constitutional Law. He is currently a scholar at Ibera Manmena University in Mexico City. He works in human rights. Although he has no clear partisan affiliation, he supports Morena’s judicial overhaul that moves forward and said in an interview with the university that the overhaul is “urgent and necessary to rebuild” the judiciary. He said some of his work on the constitution was to justify reforms.

– Irving Espinosa Betanzo is a district magistrate of the Supreme Court of Mexico City and was previously a congressional adviser to Morena. He ran for the country’s Supreme Court on a platform to eliminate nepotism and corruption and promote human rights.

– Rodrigo Guerrero García is a law professor who has no experience as a judge, but has served as a civil servant and has experience in both the Constitution and the Parliamentary Law. He gained traction in social media videos, saying he claimed he was “more prepared than pork skin”.

– Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra is a prosecutor who specializes in providing human rights to the Office of the Attorney General of Mexico. She is engaged in issues such as gender equality, sexually transmitted infections and human trafficking. In 2023, she investigated the fire at the immigration facility in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, killing 40 immigrants.