Mexicans vote in historic election as lines stretch around consulates in US

Thousands of Mexican citizens living in the United States lined up at the Mexican consulate on Sunday to vote in a historic vote that could elect the country’s first female president.

Voters began lining up outside the Mexican Consulate in Dallas as early as 3:30 a.m. Sunday to ensure they could cast their ballot. The Dallas Morning News reported.In Orlando, the lines to vote stretched for miles.

The key presidential election is to decide who will replace President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose populist, nationalist stance has led to on-and-off shifts in relations with the United States.

The front-runner in the race is former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who is a member of Lopez Obrador’s Morena party and has his backing, but questions about her record have led some to question whether she will fully follow in his footsteps.

Sheinbaum is facing two rivals, Xochitl Gálvez of the opposition coalition led by the conservative National Action Party, and Jorge Álvarez Maínez of the minority Citizens’ Movement.

Either Sheinbaum or Galvez will become the country’s first female president, and Sheinbaum will be the country’s first Jewish head of state.

Election polls have Galvez trailing Sheinbaum by double digits and Minez’s approval rating at less than 10 percent.

This will be the first election in which Mexicans living in the United States, Canada, Spain and France can vote in person at a Mexican consulate. Previously, they could vote by mail or electronically.

There are nearly 1 million Mexican nationals eligible to vote in the Dallas metropolitan area alone, according to the census. Thousands of them turned out to vote across the country on Sunday, but violence was voters’ biggest concern.

Violence in parts of the country has already disrupted election day, with about a fifth of polling stations not opening three hours after they were scheduled to do so. The Associated Press reported.According to election officials, just under 60% of polling stations were counted on time.

Many of the postponed polling stations are in Chiapas state, near the border with Guatemala and the epicenter of some of the country’s worst gang violence.

A local candidate was recently killed in Chiapas, and on Sunday a man was kidnapped from a polling station in the state and later found beaten to death, according to the Associated Press. 28 candidates were murdered According to human rights group Data-Civica, the trend is being seen across the country this election season.

All 628 seats in Mexico’s Senate and House of Representatives are also up for election, making the vote all the more important: Around 100 million people are expected to vote across the country.