Mexico's lower house approves president's judicial reform package

Mexico City: Mexico's Chamber of Deputies, or the lower house, approved a judicial reform package, spearheaded by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which will lead to judges being elected than appointed.

The package was passed with 359 votes in favor from lawmakers from the governing National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and its allies, the Labor Party (PT) and Green Party (PVEM), and 135 votes against, Xinhua news agency reported.

The reforms call for electing judges by popular vote, instead of through political appointments, and reducing the number of judges on the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation from 11 to nine, as well as reducing their term on the bench from 15 to 12 years.

They also call for eliminating the lifetime pension received by current and future Supreme Court judges.

"We have achieved a qualified majority for the judicial reform," said the coordinator of Morena's legislative bloc, Ricardo Monreal, adding the party fulfilled what it "proposed to the people at the polls."

"The people are fed up with the cap-and-gown dictatorship, with corruption and nepotism in the judiciary. And that is why we are not going to hesitate. We are going to go all the way with this and all 20 constitutional reforms (proposed by Lopez Obrador on February 5)," said Monreal.

Lawmakers had to debate the reform package at an alternative venue to the legislative headquarters in Mexico City because employees of the judicial branch in protest blocked access to the building early Tuesday in a bid to stop the vote from proceeding.

Lawmakers instead held the session at Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City in the Mexican capital.