MEXICO CITY, June 4, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - An Indigenous rights defender and former advisor to Mexico's Zapatista guerrilla movement led the race Tuesday to head Mexico's Supreme Court, which has traditionally been filled by elite jurists.

Mexicans went to the polls Sunday for unprecedented judicial elections following a contentious reform which made their country the only one in the world to select all judges via the ballot box.

Hugo Aguilar, a member of the Mixtec Indigenous group, had the most votes for Supreme Court justices with more than 96 percent of ballots tallied, the National Electoral Institute (INE) said.

"It's our turn," Aguilar proclaimed during his campaign, denouncing the "exclusion and abandonment" of native peoples.

Around 20 percent of Mexicans identify as Indigenous.

Aguilar follows in the footsteps of Benito Juarez, Mexico's first Indigenous president who also led the Supreme Court from 1857-1858.

The constitutional law specialist had a narrow lead over Lenia Batres, a member of President Claudia Sheinbaum's Morena party.

Mexico's judicial reform "made it very clear that the candidate who receives the most votes will preside over (the Supreme Court) for the first two years," INE President Guadalupe Taddei told a press conference.

Her comments came hours after Sheinbaum suggested that the chief justice position could go to a woman, regardless of the number of votes, because of gender policies.

- 'Significant debt' -

Aguilar was a legal advisor to the now demobilized Zapatistas during negotiations with the government following an armed uprising in 1994.

He has said Mexico's Indigenous peoples are owed a "a significant debt."

Aguilar worked at the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples under Sheinbaum's predecessor and mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

"Citizens are fed up with this justice system," Aguilar repeated during the campaign, echoing Lopez Obrador and Sheinbaum's accusation that the judiciary is at the service of political and economic elites.

Partial vote results suggested that judges close to the ruling party were set to dominate the Supreme Court.

Despite confusion and low turnout -- with only about 13 percent of eligible voters participating -- Sheinbaum declared the election a success.

Her opponents, however, branded it a "farce" and warned it would consolidate the ruling party's power, as it already dominates both houses of Congress.

The majority of Mexico's Supreme Court justices quit over the judicial reforms last year and declined to stand for election.

- 'Answer to the people' -

The overhaul was initiated by Lopez Obrador, who frequently clashed with the Supreme Court over whether his policy changes were unconstitutional.

On Monday, Sheinbaum downplayed the low turnout, arguing that 13 million Mexicans casting ballots was more representative than the previous process, which saw senators select Supreme Court justices from a shortlist prepared by the president.

"Mexico is the most democratic country in the world," she said.

"Now the judges, magistrates and justices answer to the people," she added.

The leader of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Alejandro Moreno, said it was a "dark day for democracy."

Many voters seemed daunted by the long list of largely unknown candidates in an election for around 880 federal judges as well as hundreds of local judges and magistrates.

Candidates were supposed to have a law degree, experience in legal affairs, a clean criminal record and what is termed "a good reputation."

Another election for the remainder of Mexico's judicial positions will be held in 2027.