Mexico City - Mexico held its first ever judicial election on Sunday, causing controversy and sowing confusion, and is still struggling to understand the process aimed at changing the country’s court system.

Mexico's ruling party Morena overhauled the court system late last year, sparking protests and criticism that reform was an attempt by those in power to seize political visibility and that until now, it could not control government branches.

"It's an effort to control the court system, and it's stinging on one side," said Laurence Patin, head of the Mexican legal group Juicio Justo. "But it's an antibalance that exists in every healthy democracy."

Mexican voters will now select about 7,700 candidates to compete for more than 2,600 judicial positions instead of being appointed as judges with excellent and experienced systems.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and party allies say elections are a way for the state to clear the corruption system of courts in a long-standing state. Critics say that voting could undermine democracy and open up the justice system, further involving organized crime and other corrupt actors who want to hold power.

This process is becoming increasingly chaotic as the voting progresses.

Civil society groups such as Defensorxs have already raised red flags for a range of candidates running for elections, including representatives of some of Mexico’s most worrying cartel leaders and local officials who have been forced to resign due to a corruption scandal.

Similarly, among those who raised themselves, former criminals were imprisoned for years for drug trafficking and were in touch with a candidate with a religious group whose spiritual leaders were in California’s prisons after sexual abuse of minors.

Meanwhile, voters were hurriedly abandoned during the voting process of Pattin warning. Voters often have to choose from more than a hundred candidates who sometimes are not allowed to express their parties explicitly or conduct extensive campaigns.

As a result, many Mexicans say they will vote blindly. Mexico’s electoral agencies have investigated voter guidelines issued across the country, and critics say political parties have taken blatant action to stack votes.

"Party parties should not only sit with their arms crossed," Pattin said.

Miguel Garcia, 78, stood in front of the country’s Supreme Court on Friday, staring at a series of posters, voter guides, faces and candidate numbers.

He smeared their names violently on a small piece of paper and said he had traveled through Mexico City, trying to inform himself before the vote, but he could not find anything other than the court.

"Near the neighborhood where I live, there was no information given to us," he said. "I was confused because they told us to go out and vote, but we didn't know who to vote for."