Mexico City – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was exuberant. “Great, impressive,” she told reporters on Monday. “Extraordinary. … A great success.”
The Superlatives continued to come the historical judicial elections of Sunday – who defended Sheinbaum – but the president could not hide harsh reality: only about 13% of the 100 million eligible voters issued ballot papers in a vote that the president had labeled an important part of the constant “transformation” of the party. She and her allies had spent weeks to encourage people to vote.
No one expected that Sunday’s poll – which did not include contenders for national or entire legislative items – would approach the 61% turnout of last year’s national elections. Sheinbaum won a landslide victory last year, and its Morena -political block was swept to large majorities in both houses of the congress and in state houses and cities throughout the country.
This was a festival of voters fraud and they dare to say that people rule.
– Jorge Romero, national leader of the National Action Party
The turnout was more disappointing than even the lowest estimates of the pre-elections of around 15%. Some proponents of the elections had optimistically predicted, no less than one third of voters would reach the polls.
“Everything can be perfected,” the president admitted.
The lack of participation, experts said, can be attributed to many factors: it was an election an election; The voice process was new and extremely complicated; The vast majority of more than 7,000 contenders for 881 federal right positions – and for another 1,800 state -legal posts – were unknown.
The elections, while the brainchild of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – the founder of Morena and the mentor of Sheinbaum – apparently not – party was bound. Zousterichtenen were not identified by political convictions and were banned to receive party funds. There were no huge rallies or advertisements Blitzes in a match that largely played on social media.
And it was the first time that Mexico had ever voted for judges, who were historically appointed by expert panels or, in the case of the Supreme Court, the president. Mexico becomes the first nation in the world with a fully chosen judiciary.
“The task was a very time intensive for voters, who had to learn about a outrageous number of candidates,” said Kenneth F. Greene, a professor in the government at the University of Texas in Austin. “Nobody could possibly learn about them all.”
Nevertheless, many political observers considered Sunday’s low turnout as an embarrassing setback for a party that seemed to be almost invincible in his extraordinary march, since its rise less than ten years ago.
Opponents of the government enjoyed a rare opportunity to mock the legendary election power of Morena, to label the vote ‘Black Sunday’, and the end of judicial independence and the system of checks and balances of Mexico.
“This was a festival of voters fraud, and they dare to say that people rule,” said Jorge Romero, national leader of the Center Law National Action Party, at a press conference with images of empty voting booths and testimonies from citizens who did not know which candidates had to vote for.
Writing in the newspaper Reforma, columnist Denise Dresser Archly compared the elections with a long planned gala that nobody attends.
“They rolled out the carpet, sent the invitations, mounted the seats, designed the menu, [and] Contracted with Mariachis, “wrote dresser.” And in the end they were alone. ‘
Will all complaints and the low turnout make any difference in the ultimate composition of the judiciary? Many experts say no – despite the vow of the opposition to file a complaint with the organization of American states, a movement that is perhaps more symbolic than substantial.
The end results will not be known for a week or two. But in the end it seems likely that the official count will be, and pro-muryl members will take a seat in a system that has been attacked Sheinbaum as corrupt and filled with nepotism.
“It would always strengthen Morena and give President Sheinbaum even more power than she already has,” said Greene, who was in Mexico city to observe the voice process. “My strong gamble is that Sheinbaum now dominates all three branches of the government and is essentially able to pass on all the laws and constitutional reforms she wants. We see an enormous power concentration in presidency.”
The most accurate race is for the composition of the new Supreme Court, which will have both fewer judges – nine, instead of the current 11 – and less authority to challenge legislative and presidential decisions. Only three sitting members chose to go to the office. All three were instructed by López Obrador, who repeatedly clashed with the judges about his strong efforts to reform election law and other initiatives.
Whether the new judges of Mexico will be an improvement in relation to the current judiciary can still be seen. Many Mexicans clearly agree with the president’s claim that the Mexico’s judicial system needed a overhaul.
But judges are only a part of a legal system that has many mistakes. Unleated in the judicial reform were other entities, in particular the offices of the public prosecutor and the local police, both notoriously corrupt.
Both Sheinbaum and its predecessor have turned to the National Guard and the Go-to Law Enforcement Agency of the Nation. But National Guard troops are themselves involved in various recent scandals, including killing citizens and human trafficking in black market gasoline.
The elections “was a political humiliation,” wrote Alejandro Monsivais-Carrillo, a political scientist at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, on X. “But it doesn’t matter much: party control over public powers progress without withdrawing.”
Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal has contributed.
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