The Participants in Selecting Federal Judicial Personnel
According to the General Law of Institutions and Procedures for Elections (LGIPE), the process for selecting individuals to serve in the Federal Judicial Power involves several key players: electoral authorities, the Union’s Powers (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial), as well as the citizenry. Each has specific tasks and responsibilities.
Parallel to Other Elections
Similar to other popular election processes, such as selecting a president, governors, mayors, or legislators, the selection of federal judicial personnel follows several stages: election preparation, candidate nomination and posting, the voting day, tallying, assignment of positions, and delivery of majority certificates and validation declarations.
The Senate’s Role in Candidate Lists
The Legislative Power, specifically the Senate of the Republic, is tasked with issuing the relevant call and doing so within thirty natural days following the start of the first ordinary session of the previous year leading up to the election in question. Moreover, the Senate must compile a list of candidates for federal judicial personnel alongside the Executive and Judicial Powers. To accomplish this, a Candidate Evaluation Committee must be established.
The Senate is responsible for collecting lists from all three powers and forwarding them to the National Electoral Institute (INE).
The INE’s Organizational and Counting Responsibilities
According to the LGIPE, the INE is the authority responsible for organizing, conducting, and tallying the election. It ensures adherence to principles such as certainty, legality, independence, impartiality, maximum publicity, and objectivity, as well as gender parity. Among the INE’s many tasks are:
- Approving election ballot models, documentation, and materials.
- Approving guidelines or agreements necessary for organizing, conducting, and tallying the election.
- Issuing rationality, austerity, and budgetary discipline measures applicable to the election organization process.
- Carrying out nationwide, circuit, or plurinominal circumscription elections according to the territorial scope determined by the relevant judicial administration body.
- Performing election tallies.
- Managing and distributing state-allocated radio and television time, along with establishing rules to ensure this right.
- Organizing and conducting debate forums among candidates, if necessary.
- Ensuring no candidate receives public or private funding for their campaigns.
- Determining maximum personal campaign expense limits and establishing verification rules and formats.
- Guaranteeing no candidate contracts radio, television, internet, or other communication media spaces for self-promotion.
- Supervising that no political party or public servant engages in proselytizing or position-taking favoring or opposing any candidacy.
- Ensuring equitable campaign development among candidates.
- Issuing agreements to facilitate equitable dissemination of candidate proposals and encourage citizen participation in the electoral process.
- Monitoring candidate income and expenditures.
- Issuing general application guidelines for local public organizations regarding the selection of local judicial power magistrates and judges, and bringing any relevant matters to its attention under its attraction authority.
Assignment of Positions and Validation
Once the General Council completes the final summation, it will assign positions based on specialization among the highest-voting candidacies, observing gender parity and publishing election results. The General Council will then deliver majority certificates to winning candidacies and issue the validity declaration for the respective election.
The results will be communicated to either the Federal Judicial Power Electoral Tribunal or the Supreme Court of Justice, depending on the context.
TEPJF and SCJN
The Sala Superior del Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación (TEPJF) or, if applicable, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation are responsible for resolving any impugnations against majority certificates and validity declarations.
As of the previous week, TEPJF had received 3,710 cases and resolved 3,653. At the start of the current electoral process, INE issued several agreements outlining process rules, some of which were challenged for allegedly contradicting the Constitution. TEPJF dismissed some impugnations due to untimely submission, while others were found correct and constitutionally compliant.
Some individuals also filed amparo lawsuits to request the suspension of the electoral process. In response, both the Senate and INE sought TEPJF’s guidance on whether they could proceed with the process. TEPJF determined that suspension was not possible and that the Constitution mandated the process’s continuation.
Additionally, several individuals impugned the general call for compiling candidate lists issued by the Senate. TEPJF ruled that the Call adhered to constitutional requirements, outlining stages, dates, deadlines, and allowing INE to issue necessary regulations for the electoral process organization.
Citizen Participation
Eligible citizens with a voter credential and registered in the National Register of Voters or additional list, or those with a favorable Tribunal Electoral resolution, can vote. Citizens doubly drawn and trained by INE will serve as polling officers, responsible for setting up sectional polling stations and receiving votes.
According to INE, 99 million 799,133 citizens will be eligible to vote on June 1 as part of the National Register of Voters.
