Mexico’s first judicial elections are marked by low turnout, confusion and disillusionment

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico held its first-ever judicial elections Sunday, stirring controversy and sowing confusion among voters who struggled to understand a process set to transform the country’s court system.

Polls closed and poll workers began counting colored ballots Sunday night with the question hanging in the air of what will become of Mexico’s judiciary, the answer to which will only emerge in the coming days as results roll in.

Mexico’s electoral authority announced late in the night that 13% of Mexico’s 100 million voters cast ballots at the polls, lagging far behind the 60% turnout just a year before during the country’s presidential election.

Nevertheless, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called the voting "a complete success.”

"Mexico is the most democratic country in the world," she added.

Experts warned of startling low turnout in the lead up to the historic elections due to the mindboggling array of unfamiliar choices and the novelty of voting for judges. Experts say those factors may throw into question the legitimacy of the election, which has faced months of fierce scrutiny.

Sheinbaum, a member of Mexico's ruling party, Morena, rejected the criticisms and insisted the election would only only make Mexico more democratic and root out corruption in a system that most people in the country believe is broken.

"Whoever says that there is authoritarianism in Mexico is lying," she said. "Mexico is a country that is only becoming more free, just and democratic because that is the will of the people."

While some voters said they felt pushed to vote in an election they felt would determine the fate of the country's democracy, many more expressed a deep sense of apathy, citing disillusionment due to decades of corruption and lack of basic information about the vote.

"I’m not interested (in voting). Parties and their messages - they come and they go. It’s all the same," said Raul Bernal, a 50-year-old factory worker in downtown Mexico City walking is dog.

Even without the final tally, the results of the vote are set to transform Mexico’s judiciary. Morena overhauled the court system late last year, fueling protests and criticism that the reform is an attempt by those in power to seize on their political popularity to gain control of the branch of government until now out of their reach.

"It’s an effort to control the court system, which has been a sort of thorn in the side” of those in power, said Laurence Patin, director of the legal organization Juicio Justo in Mexico. "But it’s a counter-balance, which exists in every healthy democracy."

Instead of judges being appointed on a system of merit and experience, Mexican voters have cast ballots to choose between some 7,700 candidates vying for more than 2,600 judicial positions.

Some of the country’s voting centers opened with only a trickle of people and small lines forming throughout the day.

Esteban Hernández, a 31-year-old veterinary student, said he didn't agree with electing judges and doesn't support Morena, but came to vote because "since there isn't much participation, my vote will count more."

He had studied the candidates on a website listing their qualifications and decided to pick those who had doctorates. Other critics said they only voted for the Supreme Court and other top courts.

Francisco Torres de León, a 62-year-old retired teacher in southern Mexico, called the process “painstaking because there are too many candidates and positions that they're going to fill."

Sheinbaum’s predecessor and political mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had pushed through the judicial reform but remained out of the public eye since leaving office last year, voted in Chiapas near his ranch.

"I wanted to participate in this historic election," he said. "Never in the history of our country ... have the people decided and had the right to elect judges."

The process has raised concerns.

Civil society organizations like Defensorxs have raised red flags about a range of candidates running for election, including lawyers who represented some of Mexico’s most feared cartel leaders and local officials who were forced to resign from their positions due to corruption scandals.

Also among those putting themselves forward are ex-convicts imprisoned for years for drug trafficking to the United States and a slate of candidates with ties to a religious group whose spiritual leader is behind bars in California after pleading guilty to sexually abusing minors.

Others like Martha Tamayo, a lawyer and former congresswoman from conflict-ravaged Sinaloa, cast doubt on projections that the election could hand even more power over to criminals and criminal groups, simply because they already have a strong control over courts.

"The influence of criminal groups already exists," she said. "The cartels go with the judges (bribe them) whether they are elected or not."

The public has been plagued by confusion over a voting process that Patin warned has been hastily thrown together. Voters often have to choose from more than a hundred candidates who are not permitted to clearly voice their party affiliation or carry out widespread campaigning.

As a result, many Mexicans said they were going into the vote blind, though others voting Sunday noted they supported the process despite the confusion.

Mexico’s electoral authority has investigated voter guides being handed out across the country, in what critics say is a blatant move by political parties to stack the vote in their favor.

"Political parties weren't just going to sit with their arms crossed," Patin said.

While still unsure if his vote would improve access to justice for many Mexicans, 61-year-old actor Manuel José Contreras defended the election, Sheinbaum and her party. He cast his ballot with a tone of hope.

"The reform has its problems but we needed an urgent change," he said. "You have to start with something."