Article 96 Political Constitution of the United Mexican States

The Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, the Magistrates of the Superior Chamber (Sala Superior) and the regional chambers of the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary (Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación), the Magistrates of the Judicial Discipline Tribunal (Tribunal de Disciplina Judicial), the Circuit Magistrates and the District Judges, shall be elected freely, directly and secretly by the citizenry on the day on which the ordinary federal elections of the corresponding year are held, in accordance with the following procedure:

I.The Senate of the Republic shall publish the call for the integration of the list of candidacies no later than the thirtieth of April of the year preceding that of the corresponding judicial election, which shall contain the complete stages of the procedure, their dates and non-extendable terms, and the positions to be elected. The judicial administration body shall make known to the Senate the positions subject to election, the specialization by subject matter, the respective judicial circuit and any other information it requires;

II.The Powers of the Union shall nominate the number of candidacies corresponding to each position in accordance with the second and third paragraphs of this article. For the evaluation and selection of their nominations, they shall observe the following:

a)The Powers shall establish public, open, transparent, inclusive and accessible mechanisms that allow the participation of all interested persons who accredit the requirements established in this Constitution and in the laws, submit an essay of three pages in which they justify the reasons for their nomination and send five letters of reference from their neighbors, colleagues or persons who endorse their suitability to perform the position;

b)Each Power shall integrate an Evaluation Committee (Comité de Evaluación) made up of five persons recognized in legal activity, who shall elect from among their members the person who shall coordinate their work.

The coordinating persons of the three Committees shall integrate a Coordinating Commission (Comisión Coordinadora), responsible for verifying compliance with the constitutional and legal requirements of the participating persons, establishing harmonized criteria and methodologies of evaluation, selection and examinations of knowledge, and issuing agreements that regulate the work of the three Committees.

Each Committee shall select, in accordance with the criteria defined by the Coordinating Commission, the best evaluated persons who have the technical knowledge necessary for the performance of the position and who have distinguished themselves for their honesty, good public reputation, competence and academic and professional background in the exercise of legal activity, and

c)The Evaluation Committees shall integrate a list of the four best evaluated persons for each position. Subsequently, they shall refine said list through public drawing of lots to adjust it to two persons for each position. The Committees shall guarantee gender parity in the list of persons to be drawn by specialty and judicial circuit, where applicable. Likewise, they shall observe gender parity in the list of proposals following the drawing of lots. Once the lists are adjusted, the Committees shall send them to the authority that represents each Power of the Union for its approval and submission to the Senate.

For the purposes of the preceding paragraph, each of the Powers of the Union shall nominate two persons for each position: the Executive Power shall do so through the person holding the Presidency of the Republic; the Legislative Power shall nominate one person for each Chamber through a qualified vote of two thirds of its members present; and the Federal Judiciary, through the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, by a majority of six votes.

III.The Senate of the Republic shall receive the nominations and shall send the lists to the National Electoral Institute (Instituto Nacional Electoral) within the terms referred to in the call, in order that it organize the elective process.

The candidate persons may be nominated simultaneously by one or several Powers of the Union, provided that they aspire to the same position. The Powers that do not send their nominations at the end of the term provided in the call may not do so subsequently, and

IV.The National Electoral Institute shall carry out the computations of the election, publish the results and deliver the certificates of majority to the candidacies that obtain the greatest number of votes. It shall also declare the validity of the election and send its results to the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary or to the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation for the case of electoral magistratures, which shall resolve the challenges before the Senate of the Republic installs the first ordinary session period, the date on which the elected aspirant persons shall take the oath of their position before said legislative body. The electoral authorities may not modify the results of the election or the assignment of positions after that date.

For the case of Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, Magistrates of the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary and members of the Judicial Discipline Tribunal, the election shall be held at the national level in accordance with the foregoing procedure and in the terms provided by the laws. Each Power shall nominate two candidacies per position to be renewed in the election in question. The assignment of the elected positions shall be made among the candidacies that obtain the greatest number of votes, observing the parity integration of the corresponding body.

For the case of Circuit Magistrates, as well as District Judges, the election shall be held by judicial circuit and district in accordance with the following bases and with what the law provides:

I.The National Electoral Institute shall divide each judicial circuit into the judicial districts necessary so that, in that territorial scope, the citizenry may elect one candidacy for each specialty corresponding to its judicial circuit from among the proposals made by each Power and, where applicable, from the persons serving as judges in the position to be elected;

II.The National Electoral Institute shall generate a list of candidacies by specialty in each judicial circuit where it shall distinguish the nominating Power and the gender. Subsequently, in a public act, it shall randomly assign the candidacies corresponding to each judicial district, guaranteeing that the Powers nominate in each district two persons of the same gender per specialty;

III.When the number of positions per specialty is less than the number of judicial districts into which a circuit is divided, the National Electoral Institute shall assign the remaining positions with their respective candidacies in two or more districts in a random manner, in order to guarantee that the electors of each district vote for all the specialties of their circuit, and

IV.The National Electoral Institute shall carry out in each judicial election the necessary modifications to the electoral geographic framework to adapt the judicial districts to the number of positions and specialties to be elected by circuit.

The Senate shall incorporate into the lists it sends to the National Electoral Institute the persons who are serving in the positions indicated in the preceding paragraph at the close of the respective call, except when they state the declination of their candidacy within the thirty days following its publication or are nominated for a different position or judicial circuit. The assignment of the elected positions shall be made by subject matter of specialization among the candidacies that obtain the greatest number of votes.

The stage of preparation of the corresponding federal election shall begin with the first session that the General Council of the National Electoral Institute holds in the first seven days of the month of September of the year preceding the election.

The candidate persons shall have the right of access to radio and television on equal terms, in accordance with the distribution of time established by the law and determined by the National Electoral Institute. They may, moreover, participate in debate forums organized by the Institute itself or in those provided free of charge by the public, private or social sector under conditions of equity.

For all positions of election within the Federal Judiciary, public or private financing of their campaigns shall be prohibited, as well as the contracting, by themselves or through an intermediary person, of spaces on radio and television or in any other means of communication to promote candidates. Political parties and public officials may not carry out acts of proselytism nor position themselves in favor of or against any candidacy.

The duration of the campaigns for the positions indicated in this article shall be sixty days and in no case shall there be a pre-campaign stage. The law shall establish the form of the campaigns, as well as the restrictions and sanctions applicable to the candidate persons or public officials whose statements or proposals exceed or contravene the constitutional and legal parameters.

The ballots of the judicial election shall distinguish the nominating Power and, where applicable, the persons serving as judges in the positions to be elected. Likewise, they shall distinguish the specialties corresponding to each territorial scope and shall contain the full names of the candidate persons. The candidacies shall be located in boxes so that the citizenry indicates its preference, and it must elect a single candidacy per specialty.

The judicial election day shall be held at the same location where the ordinary federal or local elections of that year are held. The electoral authorities shall adopt the necessary measures to guarantee that the judicial election day takes place without the intervention of persons representing political parties.

The scrutiny and computation of the votes shall be carried out at the polling station where they were cast.