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🐌 Slow count, large protests
Low turnout and tricky logistics raise doubts about Mexico’s unprecedented judicial election. And a pension reform is fueling street protests in Panama
Ignacio Portes & Lucas Berti
June 03, 2025
MEXICO
AMLO allies take lead in slow judicial election vote count
A 13% turnout rate and a high number of spoiled ballots raise legitimacy questions about Mexico’s judicial elections. Photo: Octavio Hoyos/Shutterstock
Mexico’s former left-wing president Andrés Manuel “AMLO” López Obrador spent much of his six-year term at odds with the judiciary. The Supreme Court frequently blocked his legislative agenda, striking down several of his landmark initiatives. In response, he proposed what was once considered unthinkable: a complete overhaul of Mexico’s judicial system — by popular vote.
Such a sweeping change required amending the constitution, which is no easy legislative task in Mexico. But the 2024 landslide election of his appointed successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, delivered the ruling Morena party a supermajority in Congress. With the two-thirds support necessary to change Mexico’s constitution, AMLO’s long-term vision came to life in Sunday’s extraordinary national vote.
Mexicans were called to the polls to elect an entirely new Supreme Court, as well as judges for the powerful electoral court and a newly created judicial disciplinary court. Hundreds of state and local judicial seats were also up for grabs. Once all ballots are tallied, roughly half of Mexico’s judiciary will be replaced, with the remainder scheduled for election in 2027.
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