Elections in Mexico are held for officials at federal, state, and municipal levels.
At the federal level, the nation's head of state, the president, is directly elected with the popular vote by all Mexican citizens for a six-year non-renewable term.
All members of the bicameral federal legislature, the Congress of the Union, are also elected by all Mexican citizens.
Since 2016, a constitutional amendment has designed Mexico City to be a fully autonomous entity on par with the states.
In order to carry the ballot, the citizen should first request a Voting Credential (Spanish: Credencial para Votar), a plastic card issues by the National Electoral Institute (Spanish: Instituto Nacional Electoral, INE) of the federal government.
[2] The heads of government executive bodies are commonly directly elected with the popular vote for a six-year term.
[3] Article 2 of the Constitution of Mexico provides for the self-government of indigenous communities according to their "traditional customs" (Spanish: sistema de usos y costumbres).
[4] This has resulted in several indigenous communities in Mexico maintaining local systems, notably those of Cherán, and areas under Councils of Good Government control.
According to the Constitution of Mexico, several important officials of the federal government of Mexico (Spanish: Gobierno federal de México or Poderes de la Unión) shall be elected by all Mexican citizens, including the president of Mexico who serves as the head of state and head of government, as well as all members of the bicameral Congress of the Union that consists of Chamber of Deputies and Senate of the Republic.
Under the current Mexican electoral system, the president of Mexico is directly elected for a six-year non-renewable term.
They also cannot have been either the governor of a state or the chief of government of Mexico City for six months prior to the election.
These officials are elected for a six-year non-renewable term by the citizens of that federative entity.
To be a governor or head of government: Each federative entity has a unicameral legislature officially named congress (Spanish: congreso).
For a party to be eligible for proportional-appointment seats they must run candidates in at least 30 districts and receive at least 3% of the vote throughout the state.
Similar to the federal Chamber of Deputies, a party cannot have more than 8% more seats in the legislature than their percentage of state-wide votes (e.g., to win 50% of the legislative seats, a party must win at least 42% of the vote statewide) unless that excess was earned in the direct elections.