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An indigenous lawyer, Hugo Aguilar, looks set to become Mexico’s new chief justice following Sunday’s ground-breaking judicial election.<\/p>\n
Mexicans were asked to choose the country’s entire judiciary by direct ballot for the first time after a radical reform introduced by the governing Morena party.<\/p>\n
With almost all the votes for the Supreme Court counted, Mr Aguilar was in the lead for the top post.<\/p>\n
President Claudia Sheinbaum declared the elections a success, even though turnout was low at around 13%. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Electoral authorities said Mr Aguilar, who is a member of the Mixtec indigenous group, was ahead of Lenia Batres, the candidate who had the backing of the governing Morena party. <\/p>\n
Hugo Aguilar has long campaigned for the rights of Mexico’s indigenous groups, which make up almost 20% of the population according to the 2020 census in which people were asked how the identified themselves. <\/p>\n
For the past seven years, the 51-year-old constitutional law expert has served as the rights co-ordinator for the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI).<\/p>\n
He was also a legal advisor to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) – an indigenous guerrilla group which staged a short-lived uprising in southern Chiapas state in 1994 – during the EZLN’s negotiations with the government in 1996.<\/p>\n
During his campaign for the post of chief justice he had said that it was “the turn of the indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples to take a seat in the Supreme Court”, accusing the highest court of being stuck in the past and wedded to “principles which don’t drive real change for the people”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Candidates with links to the governing Morena party look set to win the majority of the remaining eight posts on the Supreme Court, according to early results.<\/p>\n
Critics of the judicial reform which led to the direct election of all the country’s judges say the dominance of the governing party is undermining the judiciary’s independence.<\/p>\n
Those who backed the reform argued that it would make the judiciary more democratic and beholden to voters.<\/p>\n
However, the turnout was the lowest in any federal vote held in Mexico, suggesting that there was little enthusiasm among voters for choosing members of the judiciary directly. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n