One spent more than five years in a U.S. prison for trying to smuggle meth. Another was embroiled in a scandal involving journalists shot dead. At least four have faced investigations for offenses like sexual abuse or organized crime.

These are just a few of the candidates vying for judgeships and magistrate posts in Mexico’s first-ever judicial elections on Sunday, which are set to transform the nation’s judiciary, including the Supreme Court.

The overhaul has opened the door to more than 7,000 candidates, shifting the judiciary from an appointment-based system to one where voters elect judges and there are few requirements to run.

The changes were pushed last year by the former president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and backed by his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum. They have argued the measure would infuse the judicial branch with more independence, root out corruption and, by allowing citizens to select judges, democratize the judiciary.

But some critics and legal experts said the move could instead erode judicial independence and expand the sway of the governing Morena party. They say that the election to fill 2,681 judicial posts risks turning the courts into a politicized body defined by popularity, not legal expertise, and more vulnerable to outside influence.

Criminal groups have already infiltrated local governments, security forces and sectors of the economy in large parts of Mexico. That candidates accused of criminal ties will appear on the ballot has fueled further fears that organized crime has found ways of “ensuring that its tentacles will reach into the judicial system,” said Amrit Singh, a professor at Stanford Law School who has analyzed Mexico’s experiment.