Why are Mexico’s judges striking over AMLO’s proposed judicial reforms?

Change pushed by the Morena party would see judges elected by popular vote, in what some see as a political power grab.

Thousands of judicial workers and judges have gone on strike this week in Mexico, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, seeks to advance a massive overhaul of the country’s courts.

At the core of the proposed reforms is a controversial plan to elect federal judges — including Supreme Court appointees and electoral magistrates — by popular vote. Lopez Obrador has said the change is needed to root out corruption.

But critics see the move as the latest salvo in the ongoing tensions between Lopez Obrador and the judiciary.

Experts like Julio Rios Figueroa, a law professor at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) in Mexico City, warn that the reforms could eat away at the government’s checks and balances, not to mention destabilise the justice system.

“It will create administrative chaos and uncertainty in many areas,” Rios Figueroa told Al Jazeera. “It will also end judicial independence and judicial autonomy in Mexico.”