Claudia Scheinbaum has been elected Mexico’s first female president, receiving at least 58.3% of the vote, according to preliminary results from Mexico’s Electoral Commission.
The former climate scientist’s main rival, Xochitl Gálvez of the opposition coalition, received at least 26.6% of the vote, while Jorge Álvarez Maínez, candidate from the centrist Citizen Movement party, came in third with at least 9.9% of the vote.
Galvez questioned the veracity of the results after the electoral commission repeatedly delayed the vote count without giving any explanation, despite exit polls showing a wide margin. “The votes are there. Don’t let them hide them,” he said. Galvez wrote to X:.
As the results were announced, supporters of Mr. Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena party headed to Mexico City’s iconic central square, the Zócalo, where Mr. Sheinbaum was scheduled to give a victory speech, and an exhausted-looking mariachi band played for four hours while they waited.
Sheinbaum’s result surpassed the 54.71% achieved in 2018 by her mentor, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“I congratulate Claudia Scheinbaum on her landslide victory,” Obrador wrote on X. “She will become Mexico’s first female president in 200 years… and may become the most voted-up president in the history of our country.”
Hours before a rapid tally by Mexico’s electoral commission was expected to determine the winner, Morena leader Mario Delgado told supporters in Mexico City that Sheinbaum had won by a “very large” margin.
Scheinbaum’s landslide victory was consistent with polls throughout the election, which had given her a sizable lead.
Mexico’s biggest elections in history, with the presidency and more than 20,000 other posts up for grabs, have been the most violent in modern history, with more than 30 candidates killed and hundreds more dropping out, as criminal gangs vie to install friendly leaders.
Two people were killed at a polling station in the state of Puebla on Sunday.
Scheinbaum founded Morena in 2014 and made the most of its support for Obrador, his populist predecessor, who first took office in 2018 in a landslide victory that overcame the power base of the traditional parties.
She has vowed to continue his policies, including cash transfers to seniors and single mothers and major infrastructure projects in historically poor areas, but also to significantly expand the military’s role in areas typically covered by civilian society, such as domestic security.
About 100 million people registered to vote on Sunday, leading to long lines at polling stations in sweltering heat.
At a polling station between Mexico City’s affluent Roma and working-class Doctores districts, voters were divided on Morena’s merits and leaned back in line to answer carefully.
Patricia Castro, a woman from Sinaloa, shrugged at the mention of Sheinbaum and Galvez, but not at Lopez Obrador. “He’s the worst,” Castro said. “The worst.”
Castro voted for the conservative PAN party, part of the opposition coalition, and said, “PAN is [when it was in power]. “
Further back in the line, Caro Guzmán, a middle-aged cleaner, emphasized the importance of Morena’s social welfare program. “Thanks to Morena, my sister got money every month to take care of our mother,” he said. “It really helped us when she was sick.”
Guzman added that he trusts Sheinbaum to continue Molina’s social service programs.
Sam Castillo, a 25-year-old dancer who lives between Oaxaca state and Mexico City, said he hoped Mr Scheinbaum would take a tougher stance on diplomacy than Mr Lopez Obrador.
As he waited to cast his ballot at a polling station in the Florida district in southern Mexico City, Castillo said that as a member of the LGBTQ+ community he would feel more comfortable with the left-leaning Morena in power. “What we’ve seen with the gender law and same-sex marriage, for me it has to do with political party,” Castillo said.
The new president will face tense negotiations with the United States over security cooperation on drug trafficking and the massive flow of migrants from Mexico to the United States as the country faces a raging fentanyl epidemic.
Mexican officials expect the negotiations to become more difficult if Donald Trump wins the US presidential election in November. Trump, the first US president to be convicted of a crime, has vowed to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese cars made in Mexico and said he would deploy special forces to fight the cartels.
