Election process
The constitutional reforms, the secondary laws and the call establish that no later than October 31, each Branch of the Union must form an Evaluation Committee, which will put together the lists of candidates for judges who will participate in the June 2025 election.
Subsequently, the Committees will have four days – until November 4 – to publish the calls for the evaluation and selection process of candidates, and from November 5 to 24, interested parties will be able to register.
Once the candidates are registered, each Evaluation Committee will carry out three screenings: one to verify that they meet the requirements for the position they are seeking; the second to qualify suitability; and the third will be by raffle, in order to reduce the lists by candidates.
After the last purge, the Committees will leave a list of three candidates for minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), for magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) and for the Disciplinary Court, and two for Circuit Magistrates and District Judges.
The above must be concluded no later than February 4, since that day the lists must be sent to each Branch of the Union for “approval”; That is to say, although the Committees choose the candidates, it will be the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial who approve or reject the contenders.
Rules favor Morena
The Evaluation Committees will choose the contenders proposed by each Branch of the Union, but the latter will be the ones to endorse the candidates.
The recent reforms to the Constitution and the secondary laws approved by Morena and its allies establish that each Branch will nominate two to three people per position, depending on the type of position.
For example, to be minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) and the new Disciplinary Courtthe election will be held at the national level, and each Branch of the Union will nominate up to three people.
This means that there will be 279 candidates for these positions, without counting the judges in office who are seeking to compete; Of these, Morena will have the opportunity to propose up to 186, since the Executive Branch is headed by the Morena member Claudia Sheinbaum, and in the Legislative Branch, the ruling party has the qualified majority necessary to approve or reject the candidacies.
The Judiciary will only be able to present 93 candidates for ministers and magistrates of the Disciplinary Court, as well as the regional chambers and the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Court. The vote – in favor – of at least six ministers is necessary and the ruling party has three allies in the Court, which are Lenia Batres, Yasmín Esquival and Loretta Ortiz.
For the case of circuit magistrates and district judges In total there will be 850 places, so there could be up to 5,100 candidates, of which 3,400 will be from the Executive and Legislative Branch, led by Morena.
With these data we can see that Morena will be able to elect almost 70% of the candidates for judges in June 2025.
