By Lizbeth Diaz and Sarah Kinosian
MEXICO CITY – Mexican voters waited long Sunday to cast their ballots in a historic election expected to make leftist Claudia Sheinbaum, the candidate of the ruling party, the country’s first female president.
Sheinbaum has been leading polls on the main contender Xochitl Galvez, who represents the opposition coalition consisting of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the right-wing PAN and the left-wing PRD party.
A victory by either woman would be a major step forward for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture. The winner, set to begin a six-year term on October 1, will face daunting challenges including addressing organized crime violence.
As she headed to the polls Sunday morning, Sheinbaum told reporters that it was a “historic day” and that she felt relieved and relieved.
“Everyone should come out to vote,” Sheinbaum, a physicist and former mayor of Mexico City, said on local TV.
Galvez, a businessman and senator, chatted with supporters as he arrived to cast his ballot shortly after the polls opened.
“God is with me,” Galvez said, adding that he expected a tough day ahead.
Outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum’s mentor, greeted supporters and posed for photos as he walked from the presidential palace to vote with his wife.
There were long lines of voters outside polling stations, even before they opened at 8 a.m. local time (1400 GMT), with some reports of a delayed opening.
“It seems like a dream to me. I never imagined that one day I would vote for a woman,” said Edelmira Montiel, 87 years old, a supporter of Sheinbaum in Tlaxcala, the smallest state in Mexico.
“Before we could not even vote, and when you can, it is to vote for your husband to vote for you. Thank God that has changed and I ask to live,” Montiel added.
The campaign has been marred by violence, with 38 candidates killed including a local candidate who was shot dead on Friday night. It is the highest toll in Mexico’s modern history, raising concerns about the threat the drug cartel war poses to democracy.
Almost 100 million Mexicans are eligible to vote in Sunday’s election. Other positions up for grabs include the mayor of Mexico City, eight governors and two chambers of Congress. About 20,000 elected positions are on the ballot, the most in Mexican history.
Polls will close at 6pm local time (0000 GMT on Monday). The first official preliminary results are expected late Sunday.
‘BLOOD FLOOD’
“This country is inundated with blood because of so much corruption,” said Rosa Maria Baltazar, 69, a voter in the middle-class Del Valle neighborhood in Mexico City. “I want a change of government for my country, for a better life.”
Lopez Obrador has been following the campaign trail, seeking to turn the vote into a referendum on his political agenda. Sheinbaum dismissed opposition claims that he would be a “puppet” of Lopez Obrador, although he pledged to continue many policies including those that help Mexico’s poorest.
Polls suggest that Morena may not be able to reach a two-thirds majority in Congress. That will make it harder for Sheinbaum to push for constitutional reform in opposition parties, including the PRI, which ruled Mexico for seven decades until democratic elections in 2000.
Front-end challenges for the next president also include tackling electricity and water shortages and luring manufacturers to relocate as part of the nearshoring trend, where companies move their supply chains closer to key markets. The winner of the election will also have to contend with Pemex, the state oil giant that has seen production decline for two decades and is drowning in debt.
Both candidates have pledged to expand welfare programs, despite Mexico running a large deficit this year and slow GDP growth of just 1.5% expected by the central bank next year.
The new president will face tense negotiations with the United States over the huge flow of migrants entering the US via Mexico and security cooperation on drug trafficking as the US fentanyl outbreak rages.
Mexican officials expect the negotiations to be more difficult if the US presidency is won by Donald Trump in November. Trump, the first US president to be convicted of a crime, has promised to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese cars made in Mexico and has said he will deploy special forces to fight the cartels.
Sam Castillo, a 25-year-old dancer who lives between the state of Oaxaca and Mexico City, said he hopes Sheinbaum can be stronger in foreign relations than Lopez Obrador has been.
As he waited to vote at a polling station in the Florida district south of Mexico City, he said he felt better with the leftist Morena as part of the LGBT community.
“What we’re seeing with gender legislation, with marriage equality, for me it has to do with weddings,” Castillo said.
