MEXICO CITY (AP) — Projected winner of Mexico's presidential election Claudia Scheinbaum She will be the first female president in the country's 200-year history.
“I will be the first woman president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said, smiling, at a downtown hotel, shortly after election officials announced she had an irreversible lead in a sample of votes. “I didn't do it alone. We did it together, with the heroines who gave us our country, our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters.”
“Mexico has demonstrated that it is a democratic country through peaceful elections,” she said.
Mexican Elections
Mexicans will vote Sunday in a historic election focused on gender, democracy and populism, setting the country's course in a vote shadowed by cartel violence. Live updates here.
The head of the National Election Commission said that according to statistical samples, Scheinbaum received between 58.3 percent and 60.7 percent of the vote. Opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez He received 26.6 to 28.6 percent of the vote, while Jorge Álvarez Maínez received 9.9 to 10.8 percent. Sheinbaum's Morena party was also projected to win majorities in both houses of Congress.
of Climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City She said two of her competitors called her and acknowledged her victory.
Official preliminary tallies, with about 50% of polling stations counting, show Sheinbaum leading Galvez by 28 points.
The fact that the two leading candidates were women left little doubt that Mexico would make history on Sunday. Jewish Background He leads a predominantly Catholic country.
She will begin her six-year term on Oct. 1. Mexico's constitution does not allow for reelection.
The left is she I believe that the government has an important role to play in reducing economic disparities. And, like her political mentor, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, she will provide a strong social safety net.
More than 50 countries will hold elections in 2024
Mexican voters choosing their next president will choose Sunday between a former academic who promises to carry forward the current leader's populist policies and a former senator and tech entrepreneur who vows to step up the fight against deadly drug cartels.
Sheinbaum's victory suggests the political movement founded by Lopez Obrador will survive his presidency.
His designated successor, Ms Sheinbaum, 61, led throughout the election despite a fierce challenge from Ms Galvez, marking the first time that Mexico's two main candidates were women.
“Of course, I salute and congratulate Claudia Scheinbaum for her landslide victory,” Lopez Obrador said shortly after the elections commission's announcement. “She will be the first (female) president of Mexico in 200 years.”
If the margin holds, it would bring him closer to the landslide victory he won in 2018. After two failed attempts, Lopez Obrador was sworn in as president with 53.2% of the vote in a three-way race in which his National Action Party won 22.3% and the Institutional Revolutionary Party won 16.5%.
Still, Sheinbaum is unlikely to enjoy the kind of unquestioning loyalty that Lopez Obrador enjoyed.
In the Zócalo, Mexico City's main colonial square, Sheinbaum's victory did not draw the kind of cheering, jubilant crowds that greeted Lopez Obrador's victory in 2018. The turnout was enthusiastic but relatively small.
“I promise you, we won't disappoint you,” Sheinbaum said as they arrived at the square.
Sara Rios, 76, a former literature professor at Mexico's National Autonomous University, was pleased to hear that Mr. Galvez had conceded defeat.
“The only way we're going to move forward is by working together,” Rios said. “She's trying to work and move forward to bring peace to the country, but it's a slow process.”
As he waited in the square for the results, chef Fernando Fernandez, 28, acknowledged the challenges ahead.
“You're voting for Claudia, for AMLO, on the basis of your beliefs,” Fernández said, referring to López Obrador by his initials. But his biggest hope is that Sheinbaum “will fix what AMLO couldn't: gas prices, crime, drug trafficking, which he didn't fight despite being in power.”
The main opposition candidate, Galvez, a technology entrepreneur and former senator, had promised a more aggressive approach to organized crime.
“I want to emphasize that I am conceding (Scheinbaum's victory) because I demand results and solutions to our country's serious problems,” she said in her concession speech.
About 100 million people were registered to vote, and turnout was likely to be around 60%, similar to the previous election.
Voters also elected governors in nine of the nation's 32 states, candidates for both houses of Congress, and thousands of mayoral and other local offices in the nation's largest and most violent elections ever.
The election was widely seen as a referendum on the populist Lopez Obrador. Expanding social programs But for the most part Failed to reduce cartel violence In Mexico, his Morena party currently holds 23 of the 32 state governorships and a majority in both houses of Congress.
Sheinbaum has pledged to continue all of Lopez Obrador's policies, including universal pensions for the elderly and apprenticeship allowances for young people.
Continuing cartel violence and Mexico's mediocre economic performance were voters' main concerns.
Julio Garcia, a Mexico City office worker, said he voted for the opposition in the San Rafael district in central Mexico City. “They robbed me at gunpoint twice. We need to change direction, we need to change our leaders,” said Garcia, 34. “If we carry on doing the same thing, we will end up like Venezuela.”
In the San Andrés Totoltepec neighborhood on the outskirts of Mexico City, election officials passed Stefania Navarrete, a 34-year-old housewife, as she watched dozens of photographers and officials gather at a spot where front-runner Claudia Sheinbaum was scheduled to cast her vote.
Navarrete said he plans to vote for Scheinbaum despite his doubts about Lopez Obrador and his party.
“If we have a woman president, then for me, as a Mexican woman, it would mean going back to the situation before where being a woman meant I was limited to certain professions. That's not the case anymore.”
She said Scheinbaum's leadership's social programs are vital, but added that the worsening violence caused by drug cartels over the past few years is her biggest concern in this election.
“That's something they should be focusing on more,” she said. “For me, security is a big challenge. They said they were going to bring down the crime rate, but it's actually the opposite, the crime rate has skyrocketed. Of course, I don't blame the president entirely, but in a way it is his responsibility.”
President Lopez Obrador has claimed to have reduced the country's all-time high murder rate by 20% since taking office in December 2018. But this is a claim based largely on shaky interpretations of statistics; the actual murder rate appears to have only fallen by around 4% in six years.
Sunday's election comes as the upcoming November rematch between U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump highlights deep divisions in the country. Extremely polarized public opinion The president is divided in Mexico over the country's direction, including security strategy and how to grow the economy.
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Associated Press writer Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report.
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