With 13% participation in Mexico’s judicial election

Mexico held on Sunday the “historic” election to the court and began the long count of the results, whose full tally will not be known for two weeks, but which pointed to a turnout of just 13%, in a notable loss to President Claudia Sheinbaum, supporter of the idea.

“Based on a sample of randomly selected sectional polling places in front of notary publics, the results obtained by the specialists showed an estimated citizen participation of 12.57 to 13.32%,” said Guadalupe Taddei, president of the National Electoral Institute (INE) in a message to the media.

Sheinbaum had called for a «massive» vote, but the low turnout is a setback because the elections, which marked the most significant change to the judiciary in the last three decades, saw judges, magistrates, and ministers elected by direct vote in 19 states as well as at the federal level.

In 2022, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018–2024) conducted a mandate revocation consultation, and Sheinbaum predicted that participation would reach 20%, surpassing the 17.77% mark.

But just minutes after the INE released the turnout statistics, Sheinbaum hailed the day as a success in a post on her social media accounts.