Mexican men have been caught trying to pass as transgender to occupy candidacies designated for women.
Mexico is holding elections on July 1, when a new president will be elected, alongside both houses of Congress and hundreds of state and municipal officials.
In Mexico's southern Oaxaca state, electoral rules allow transgender people, known as "muxes", to occupy candidacies for women, the Guardian reports. The indigenous Zapotec people believe muxes are people born with male bodies, but identify as being neither female nor male.
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Fifteen men have been caught out by officials trying to bend the rules and pass as muxes to get their electoral seats. The male candidates were not known to be muxes before the candidate registration period, according to officials, and have now been disqualified.
"Electoral authorities must take care with the possible misuse of self-registration," an electoral officials tribunal said on Friday, "not to permit the transgender identity be utilised in a deceptive way to comply with the constitutional principle of equity".
The vacancies that were filled by the disqualified men will now be filled by women, the tribunal said.
In 2013, a constitutional reform in Mexico led to a 50-50 balance between men and women in all congressional candidacies, the Guardian reports.
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