Mexico gets its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum

Mexico’s predicted presidential winner Claudia Sheinbaum will become the first female president in the country’s 200-year history.

The climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City said on Sunday that both of his rivals had called him and claimed victory.

“I will be the first woman president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said with a smile, speaking at a downtown hotel shortly after election authorities announced a statistical sample showing she had an unassailable lead. “I didn’t make it alone. We all made it, with our heroes who gave us our homeland, with our mothers, our daughters and our grandchildren.”

“We have shown that Mexico is a democratic country with peaceful elections,” he said.

The president of the National Election Institute said Sheinbaum had between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to statistical samples. Opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez had between 26.6% and 28.6% of the vote and Jorge Álvarez Máynez had between 9.9% and 10.8% of the vote.

The initial count, which started slowly, had Sheinbaum 27 points ahead of Gálvez with 42% of the polls counted shortly after his victory speech.

The candidate of the organizing party is campaigning to continue the political course established for the past six years by his political mentor, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

His anointed successor, Sheinbaum, 61, led a wire-to-wire campaign despite a spirited challenge from Gálvez. This is the first time in Mexico that the two main opponents are women.

“Of course, I congratulate Claudia Sheinbaum with respect who ended up winning by a wide margin,” López Obrador said shortly after the election authorities’ announcement. “She will be the first (female) president of Mexico in 200 years.”

If the margin remains, it will be closer to a landslide victory in 2018. López Obrador won the presidency after two unsuccessful attempts with 53.2% of the vote, in a three-way race where the National Action took 22.3% and the Institutional Revolutionary Party took 16.5% .

Earlier, Gálvez wrote on the X social platform, “The voice is here. Don’t hide it.”

Sheinbaum, described by Agence France-Presse as “a dedicated leftist known for keeping a cool head in times of crisis,” is the grandson of Bulgarian and Lithuanian Jewish migrants, AFP said.

But AFP quoted Pamela Starr, a professor at the University of Southern California, as saying that, unlike López Obrador, Sheinbaum “is not a populist.”

“He’s more of a mainstream leftist politician” and tends to be “less ideological” than the outgoing president, Starr said.

Sheinbaum is unlikely to enjoy the unquestioning devotion that López Obrador has enjoyed. Both are members of the ruling Morena party.

In Mexico City’s main colonial-era square, the Zocalo, Sheinbaum’s leadership initially did not draw the cheering and jubilant crowds that greeted López Obrador’s 2018 victory.

Fernando Fernández, a chef, 28, joined the relatively small crowd, hoping for Sheinbaum’s victory, but he admitted there were problems.

“You voted for Claudia because of uncertainty, for AMLO,” Fernández said, referring to López Obrador by his initials, as most Mexicans do. But the highest hope is that Sheinbaum can “improve what AMLO could not do, the price of gasoline, crime and drug trafficking, which he did not fight even when he was in power.”

Also in the crowd, Itxel Robledo, 28, a business administrator, expressed hope that Sheinbaum would do what López Obrador did not. “What Claudia needs to do is professionalize every area.”

Elsewhere in the city, Yoselin Ramírez, 29, said she voted for Sheinbaum, but split her vote for the other posts because she didn’t want anyone with a strong majority.

“I don’t want them all to be ruled by the same party, so there can be more equality,” he said without elaborating.

The main opposition candidate, Gálvez, a tech entrepreneur and former senator, tried to capitalize on Mexicans’ concerns about security and promised to take a more aggressive approach to organized crime.

Nearly 100 million people are registered to vote, but turnout appears to be slightly lower than in past elections. Voters also elected governors in nine of 32 states, and chose candidates for both houses of Congress, thousands of mayors and other local positions, in the largest election the country has seen and one marked by violence.

The election is widely seen as a referendum on López Obrador, a populist who has developed a social program but has largely failed to curb cartel violence in Mexico. Morena’s party currently holds 23 of the 32 governorships and a majority of seats in both houses of Congress. Mexico’s constitution prohibits presidential re-election.

Sheinbaum pledged to continue all of López Obrador’s policies, including a universal pension for the elderly and a program that pays young people for apprenticeships.

Gálvez, whose father is Indigenous Otomi, rose from selling snacks on the street in his poor hometown to start his own technology company. A candidate running with a coalition of main opposition parties, he left the Senate last year to focus his anger on López Obrador’s decision not to confront drug cartels through a “hugs not bullets” policy. He promised to be more aggressive in pursuing criminals.

Persistent cartel violence and Mexico’s mediocre economic performance are top of mind for voters.

Julio García, an employee of the Mexico City office, said he voted for the opposition in the central San Rafael neighborhood of Mexico City. “They have robbed me twice at gunpoint. You have to change the direction, change the leadership,” said the 34-year-old. “Continue in the same way, we will become Venezuela.”

On the outskirts of Mexico City in the neighborhood of San Andres Totoltepec, election officials filed for housewife Stephania Navarrete, 34, who watched as dozens of cameramen and election officials gathered where candidate Claudia Sheinbaum was set to vote.

Navarrete said he plans to vote for Sheinbaum despite his doubts about López Obrador and his party.

“Having a female president, for me as a Mexican woman, it will be like before when for the simple fact that you are a woman who is limited to a certain profession. No more.”

He said mentor Sheinbaum’s social programs were important, but added that the damage from cartel violence in the past few years was a major concern in this election.

“It’s something we need to focus more on,” he said. “For me security is the main challenge. They said they would lower the crime rate, but no, on the contrary, they were shot. Obviously, I don’t blame the president, but there is a way to be responsible.”

In Iztapalapa, Mexico City’s largest area, Angelina Jiménez, a 76-year-old housewife, said she voted “to end this stupid government that says we are doing well and (still) many are dying.”

He said the violence sweeping Mexico is so worrying that he plans to vote for Gálvez and his promise to fight the cartels. López Obrador “says we are better and it is not true. We are worse.”

López Obrador claims to have reduced the historically high homicide rate by 20% since taking office in December 2018. But that’s a general claim based on a questionable reading of statistics. The actual homicide rate appears to have only fallen by about 4% over six years.

As the rematch next November between US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump has emphasized the deep divisions in the US, Sunday’s election revealed how polarized public opinion in Mexico is about the direction of the country, including its security strategy and how to grow. economy.

Beyond the battle for control of Congress, the race for mayor of Mexico City — a post now considered the equivalent of governor — is also important. Sheinbaum is just the latest of many Mexico City mayors, including López Obrador, to go on to serve as president. Governors in large, populous states such as Veracruz and Jalisco are also attracting interest.