UPDATE 1-Mexico's judicial election turnout likely around 13%, electoral authority says

Mexico's INE electoral authority said on Monday that turnout for Sunday's judicial election was likely between 12.57% and 13.32%, adding that thousands of officials across the country are working to verify the votes citizens cast in the ballot.

Counting is set to conclude on June 15, but INE officials estimated the turnout using a calculation based on several samples across the country. Mexicans had a day earlier voted in the country's first ever judicial elections to elect 2,600 judges and magistrates, including all Supreme Court justices, but pollsters had warned of poor turnout over boycott calls by the opposition and the complexity of voting for a large number of candidates.

"The historic judicial election of June 1, 2025, has been a complete success," President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a video message late on Sunday. "Close to 13 million Mexicans went out to exercise for the first time in history their right to decide who should be the new ministers, magistrates and judges."

Mexico has a population of around 130 million. Voting is not mandatory and there is no minimum turnout required to legitimize an election. Sheinbaum, who inherited the judicial election project from her predecessor and mentor former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has backed the vote as a way to democratize justice and root out corruption and nepotism.

However, critics say it could remove checks and balances on the executive power and allow for organized crime groups to wield greater influence by running their own candidates.

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