Preliminary results indicate that climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City Claudia Sheinbaum is expected to win the greatest election in the history of her country, making history’s first female president of Mexico.
According to the Quick Count, an exercise conducted by the National Electoral Institute (INE) using a statistical sample of votes cast at polling places, Sheinbaum has received between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote.
The 61-year-old rode the tide of popularity spearheaded by their Morena party and her longstanding political comrade, the departing leftist Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Sheinbaum declared that all Mexicans will be governed “without distinction” under her government.
“We will have to walk in peace and harmony to continue building a fair and more prosperous Mexico, even though many Mexicans do not fully agree with our project,” she said in an address to supporters on Monday.
She also discussed the historical importance of being the nation’s first female president.
She said, “I am also appreciative because I will become Mexico’s first female president for the first time in the country’s 200-year history.”
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Sheinbaum will become not just the first female president of Mexico but also the first leader of Jewish descent, despite the fact that she has led the nation as a secular socialist and hardly discusses her personal history in public.
With between 26.6% and 28.6% of the vote, opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez is trailing Sheinbaum. Gálvez is supported by a combination of the National Action (PAN), Institutional Revolutionary (PRI), and Democratic Revolution (PRD) parties. With 9.9% to 10.8% of the vote, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, the candidate for the Citizens’ Movement, came in third.
The fast count figures show that between 58.9% and 61.7% of the roughly 100 million electorate cast ballots in the presidential election.
The departing president, Andrés Obrador, congratulated Sheinbaum on her victory.
“I congratulate Claudia Sheinbaum, who won by a wide margin, with all of my love and respect.” She is going to be Mexico’s first female president. but also the President, who could have received the most votes in our nation’s history,” he stated in a video that was uploaded on X.
With the 2019 constitutional amendment that solidified the nation’s status as a global pioneer in female equality in public office, Sheinbaum’s predicted victory is a noteworthy development. When it comes to the representation of women in parliament, it surpasses several nations. Nonetheless, Mexico is still a hazardous place for women to live, with almost ten women killed there every day due to the country’s extremely high femicide rates.
Prior to her retirement in June of last year to pursue a presidential bid, Sheinbaum oversaw Mexico’s most significant city for five years. She is married to Jesús María Tarriba Unger and co-wrote a study for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won a Nobel Prize.
She is perceived as carrying on López Obrador’s social welfare policies, which improved the lives of the poorer Mexicans and increased the support of the Morena party.
Sheinbaum has denied allegations of her strong political affiliation with López Obrador and instead promised to carry out her predecessor’s plans, which included free fertilizers for small farmers, pensions for all older residents, and scholarships for over 12 million students.
Voters seem to have been most concerned about the extreme violence in the nation, which has resulted in the deaths of several political candidates or applicants in the last year and cartels expanding their influence throughout Mexico.
Even if Mexico’s murder rate decreased between 2019 and 2022, the nation is still suffering from historically high rates of almost 30,000 killings annually. Experts estimate that the real figure is much greater.
Sheinbaum has been vague about her proposed security measures, although she has cited her track record as mayor of Mexico City, where her campaign claims she enhanced the police force’s capacity for information collection and working conditions.
Convincing voters that she can eradicate the culture of impunity in Mexico—where, according to think tank Mexico Evalua, 95% of all crimes went undetected countrywide in 2022—will be one of her biggest challenges.
The biggest election in the history of the nation is taking place on Sunday. Over 98 million people are registered to vote, and 1.4 million Mexican citizens have the ability to vote overseas. A total of 70,000 people are contesting not just for the president but also for more than 20,000 posts like senators, mayors, and governors.
By September 6, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) must have qualified the presidential election and received and examined any potential objections to the process after the final results. October 1st is when Sheinbaum will assume office if the election is upheld by the court. She will hold office for six years, from 2024 to 2030.
