A Judgeship, Anyone?

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More than 18,000 people have registered to run for Supreme Court seats and federal judgeships in Mexico’s new election-based selection process, officials announced this week, following a recent reform bill earlier this year that critics say will compromise the independence of the judiciary, the Associated Press reported.

The new judicial overhaul – enacted by the ruling Morena party – will make Mexico the first country to choose all its judges by popular vote, replacing a system where candidates were vetted and shortlisted for appointments.

Under the new rules, candidates need only a law degree, a 3.2 grade point average, five years of professional experience, and five letters of recommendation from neighbors or friends to qualify.

Evaluation committees will then have about one month to sift through thousands of applications and narrow the pool to around 10 candidates or fewer for each of the 881 judgeships and nine Supreme Court seats available.

From this shortlisted group, 1,793 names will be randomly selected to appear on the ballot on June 1.

President Claudia Sheinbaum and her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador – who initiated the reform – have hailed the change as necessary to combat corruption, nepotism, and inefficiency in a judiciary which they describe as “rotten,” Agence France-Presse added.

However, critics lambasted the overhaul, warning that these minimal requirements and the random draw to determine who appears on the ballot could undermine the judiciary’s independence and technical competence.

“You don’t elect a doctor or a surgeon for an operation based on their popularity, you elect them based on their technical expertise, their ability, their knowledge,” Sergio Méndez Silva, legal coordinator for the civic group Foundation for Justice, told the newswire. “That also applies for a judge.”

Judicial workers, legal experts, and civic groups have staged protests, warning that the process could undermine judicial expertise and impartiality.

Meanwhile, analysts said the process could open the door for drug cartels or political parties, who might finance campaigns to sway decisions in their favor, to push their candidates.

Another point of concern is the impartiality of evaluation committees, whose members are appointed by the executive and legislative branches – both controlled by Morena.

Despite the backlash, officials called the number of applicants “historic.”

One supporter, Minerva Martínez Garza, a former human rights official who registered for a Supreme Court seat, told the AP that reforms are overdue.

“We need a justice system that gives results,” she said, emphasizing Mexico’s long history of trial delays and the high numbers of detainees awaiting judgment.