Mexico on Tuesday became the world’s first country to allow voters to elect judges at all levels after protesters invaded the upper house and suspended debate on the issue.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had pushed hard for the reform and criticized the judicial system for serving the interests of the political and economic elite.
The reform was approved with 86 votes in favor and 41 against, garnering the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution.
Photo: AP
Debate on the reform had sparked mass demonstrations, diplomatic tensions and investor jitters.
Mexican Senate President Gerardo Fernandez Norona declared a recess after demonstrators stormed the upper house and entered the chamber, chanting: “The judiciary will not fall.”
Lawmakers were forced to move to a former senate building, where they resumed their debate as demonstrators outside shouted: “Mr senator, stop the dictator.”
Obrador, who wanted the bill approved before he is replaced by Claudia Sheinbaum on Oct. 1, said that protesters were protecting the interests of the political elite.
“What most worries those who are against this reform is that they will lose their privileges, because the judiciary is at the service of the powerful, at the service of white-collar crime,” he told a news conference.
Opponents, including court employees and law students, have held a series of protests against the plan, under which even judges at the Mexican Supreme Court and other high-level judges, as well as those at the local level, would be chosen by popular vote.
About 1,600 judges would have to stand for election next year or 2027.
“This does not exist in any other country,” said Margaret Satterthwaite, UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. “In some countries, such as the US, some state judges are elected, and in others, such as in Bolivia, high-level judges are elected.”
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
RSS