Source: The Patriot Light | AWK Network | VIEW ORIGINAL POST ==>
More than 34,000 people have registered as candidates for 881 posts in elections next year that will make Mexico the first country to choose all its judges, at every level, by popular vote, data released on Monday showed.
The move has sparked street protests and diplomatic tensions, and prompted eight of the country’s 11 Supreme Court justices — including its president — to rule themselves out of consideration for the first election round next year.
Critics fear that elected judges could be swayed by politics and be vulnerable to pressure from drug cartels, which use bribery and intimidation to influence officials.
President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday hailed the response to the call for candidates, which closed over the weekend, as “historic.”
The change was initiated by her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and enacted before he left office. He said the move was necessary to clean up a “rotten” judiciary serving the interests of the political and economic elite.
It sparked diplomatic friction with economic partners the United States and Canada, upset financial markets and prompted a series of protests by judicial workers and other…
