The Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico rejected on Thursday, February 6, a list of nearly 1,000 candidates for judges that the Mexican Senate sent for the Judicial Election on June 1, and which resulted from the drawing process carried out by the Board of Directors of the Senate last Monday, February 3rd.
In a brief statement, the highest court in the country reported that the ministers reviewed the issue in a private session on Thursday, but “the majority of eight votes referred to in the second transitory article of the constitutional reform on the Judicial Branch of the Federation was not reached.”
The president of the Senate, the pro-government Gerardo Fernández Noroña, said on Thursday that the decision of the Court to reject the 956 candidacies for various positions of judges of the Judicial Branch selected by the Senate “is inconsequential” since the Upper House will send the list to the National Electoral Institute, as recently resolved by the Electoral Court.
The Supreme Court has until this Friday to send the final lists of candidates to the Senate, and this, in turn, must send them to the National Electoral Institute (INE) no later than this Saturday, with a deadline of February 12, to carry out the corresponding registration, as established by the judicial reform.
“Starting from this process, ballots with the names will begin to be compiled,” said this Thursday the leader of the pro-government bench in the Chamber of Deputies, Ricardo Monreal.
As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision, the Judicial Branch would not have candidates on the ballots, which would only include those proposed by the Executive, the Legislative, judges, magistrates, and three ministers in office who are close to the ruling party, experts said.
The Evaluation Committees of the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive Branches were authorized to choose their candidates to participate in the unprecedented judicial election on June 1, but the members of the judicial commission refused to make said selection. Therefore, the Electoral Court authorized the Senate to carry out that function through a drawing of lots.
The decision of the Supreme Court comes amid tensions left by the controversial judicial reform, approved and enacted last September by the then president of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador to transform the judicial power in the country, frequently accused by the former president of “corruption.”
This reform establishes that judges, magistrates, and ministers be elected by popular vote, an unprecedented measure in Mexico.
With information from CNN
TYT Newsroom
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