Mexico has never voted for judges, and now it’s electing 2,700

Nearly 7,800 candidates are participating in contests that will make Mexico the only country in the world to elect all its judges. In the U.S., many states elect judges, but federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

About half the country’s federal judges—including the nine justices on Mexico’s Supreme Court—will be replaced by newly elected magistrates at a time when President Claudia Sheinbaum and her ruling Morena party are riding high in the polls. Two-thirds of the candidates were chosen by the executive branch and by Congress, where Morena has a supermajority. The remaining half of federal judges will be replaced in a second election in 2027.

Sheinbaum has said the judicial election will help transform Mexico into a more equitable society. “The objective is to do away with corruption in the judicial branch," she said recently.

Many departing federal judges and civic groups say the judicial-system overhaul is a power grab that will eliminate checks and balances and risks returning Mexico to an authoritarian past that Sheinbaum has long criticized. Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party ran the country with little opposition for most of the 20th century. Sheinbaum’s Morena party holds the presidency, most state governorships and two-thirds of Congress.

An ad in Mexico City promoting the country’s judicial elections.

Polls show widespread dissatisfaction with the corruption-riddled judiciary. Justice is slow. Crimes go unreported and unpunished. But the legal system’s biggest failings lie with police and prosecutors rather than judges, Human Rights Watch says.

The overhaul is hurting Mexico’s efforts to attract billions of dollars in investment and could put Mexico at odds with its top trading partners as the U.S., Canada and Mexico prepare to review their free-trade treaty, business leaders said. The peso has depreciated more than 2.5% against the dollar since early June, shortly before Sheinbaum’s party won the supermajority it needed in Congress to pass the judicial overhaul.

“It’s a bad idea," said Alberto Ramos, chief Latin American economist for Goldman Sachs.

The judicial elections violate free-trade treaty provisions that call for independent magistrates, the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico said. Foreign investors are increasingly including international arbitration clauses in investment contracts to guard against the vagaries of Mexican law.

“This change in the justice system puts into question whether the court can provide fairness before the law," said Shannon O’Neil, an analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan U.S. think tank. “And if the state can’t lose, that breaches the treaty."

Weak requirements for candidates risk elevating underqualified magistrates. Drug cartels could try to influence elections for judges who work at high-security prisons where top criminals are locked up, said Eduardo Guerrero, a Mexico City-based security consultant.

In voting booths on Sunday, Mexicans will find a pages-long ballot bearing hundreds of names with different background colors identifying specific tribunals. Most candidates are unknown to voters, according to pollsters, who are projecting a low turnout.

“When you have no knowledge of the people you’re voting for, that means you don’t feel like voting," said César Gutiérrez Priego, who is running for one of nine seats on the Supreme Court.

He became a defense attorney after his father, the late drug czar Gen. Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, was accused in 1997 of receiving bribes from organized crime. Gutiérrez Priego spent the past two decades defending soldiers accused of crimes.

His main challenge: He lacks the backing of the Morena party. As most nominations are controlled by Morena and turnout will likely be low, most voters are expected to be Morena sympathizers and poorer Mexicans mobilized by the party’s political machinery.

“No one will be elected who doesn’t have the backing of Morena’s political machine," said Ana Laura Magaloni, a Mexican legal scholar.

In the race for the Supreme Court, the candidate with the most votes will be elected chief justice. Polls show a top contender is Lenia Batres, a justice on the court since 2023. Batres, who is named after Vladimir Lenin, calls herself “the people’s justice."

Juan Luis Rojas, a candidate for federal criminal magistrate, spoke to potential voters at a market in Mexico City in May.

Political parties aren’t allowed to formally endorse candidates, but many Mexicans are resorting to multicolored cheat sheets with numbered choices for candidates favored by the parties. The sheets have been printed by grassroot organizations and political committees linked to state governments and Morena. Sheinbaum has urged electoral authorities to ensure a fair and secret vote.

“There are many ballots, and many colors," said Víctor Espino, a farmer leader in the impoverished southwestern state of Guerrero. “There are names, but the problem is, who is going to know who they are?"

A few days before the election, criminal judge Roberto Posán sprinted along the aisles of food and vegetable stalls in a Mexico City market to make himself known to voters. Posán, 39, is running to keep his position and campaigned in a bulletproof car with three armed bodyguards.

“I can’t promise I will absolve or condemn you, but I guarantee that if you turn up in my court you will get a fair shake from me, as it should be," said Posán, whose muscles bulged out of a yellow T-shirt as he handed out leaflets with a link to a WhatsApp group for his supporters.

Win or lose, Posán fears for the future of rule of law in Mexico.

“Judicial autonomy is over," he said.

Write to José de Córdoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com