A controversial bill to make all judges eligible for election is close to becoming a reality in Mexico

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The lower house of Mexico’s Congress on Wednesday passed a controversial bill that would introduce the most sweeping judicial reform in a century, requiring all judges to run for office.

In a marathon session that saw lawmakers forced to convene in a gymnasium after protesters blocked the Congressional building, the House approved the constitutional measure 359-135 in an initial party-line vote just before dawn Wednesday morning. The measure, which requires a two-thirds majority, passed in a runoff later that morning and now heads to the Senate, where it is expected to pass by a razor-thin margin.

Mexico’s ruling party claims that judges in the current legal system are corrupt and wants the country’s entire judiciary – some 7,000 judges – to stand for election.

Critics say the constitutional changes would be a blow to the independence of the judiciary, and question how such large-scale elections can be held without drug cartels and criminals putting forward their own candidates.

Attention now turns to the Senate, where President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party is one seat short of a two-thirds majority but could potentially defeat an opposition party. Human rights groups Centro Pro called on the Senate to scrap the measure, saying it “undermines the life of democracy, endangers human rights and violates Mexico’s international obligations.”

López Obrador said those who oppose it “have no moral position, because everyone knows, the majority of Mexicans know, that corruption is rampant in the judiciary.”

The president has long protested courts that have blocked some of his construction projects and policies because they violate constitutional and legal norms. López Obrador has vowed for months to quickly implement a series of measures, including overhauling the judiciary — and a proposal to eliminate nearly all independent oversight and regulatory bodies.

The Senate vote is expected to be extremely close, though the president’s party appears poised to win the one vote it lacks there. If the bill passes the Senate, it will be sent to Mexico’s 32 state congresses, where it must be approved by most of them. López Obrador’s party controls a majority of the states.

Critics say the measure will undermine Mexico’s system of checks and balances.

“We should build a wall of shame that says, ‘Today begins the fall of our Republic.’ And it should have the date and all the faces of the Morena congresswomen on it,” shouted Paulina Rubio Fernández, a congresswoman from the conservative opposition National Action Party, before the vote.

Alejandro Moreno, the leader of another opposition party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, promised on Wednesday that his party members would vote against the proposal in the Senate, as they did in the lower house.

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TYT News Desk