Mexico adopts world-first judicial reforms allowing public to elect judges

Lawmakers in Mexico have approved reforms that will make it the first country to allow voters to elect all judges.

The leftist leader hailed the bill's approval on Wednesday, saying Mexico would be an "example to the world."

"It's very important to end corruption and impunity. We will make great progress when it is the people of Mexico who freely elect the judges, the magistrates, the justices," the 70-year-old told a news conference.

Outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had pushed hard for the reform, criticising the current judicial system as serving the interests of the political and economic elite.

The reform was approved with 86 votes in favour and 41 against in the early hours of the morning, garnering the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution, in an upper chamber dominated by the ruling Morena party and its allies.

The reforms have sparked mass demonstrations, diplomatic tensions and investor jitters.

Senate leader Gerardo Fernandez Norona had declared a recess after demonstrators stormed the upper house and entered the chamber, chanting "The judiciary will not fall."

Lawmakers were forced to move to a former Senate building, where they resumed their debate as demonstrators outside shouted "Mr. Senator, stop the dictator!"

'Demolition of the judiciary'

The plan, which had already cleared the lower house, must now be approved by 17 of 32 state congresses - considered a formality given the ruling coalition's political dominance - before being signed into law by the president.

Opponents, who accuse Lopez Obrador of overseeing a trend toward democratic backsliding, have held a series of protests against the plan, under which even Supreme Court and other high-level judges, as well as those at the local level, would be chosen by popular vote.

Judges will have to stand for election in 2025 or 2027.

"This does not exist in any other country," Margaret Satterthwaite, UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, said ahead of the vote.

In an unusual public warning, Supreme Court Chief Justice Norma Pina said that elected judges could be more vulnerable to pressure from criminals, in a country where powerful drug cartels regularly use bribery and intimidation to influence officials.

"The demolition of the judiciary is not the way forward," she said in a video released on Sunday.

Pina said last week that the top court would discuss whether it has jurisdiction to halt the reforms, though Lopez Obrador has said there is no legal basis for it to do so.