The candidate of the ruling leftist party Claudia Sheinbaum won the presidential elections in Mexico convincingly, according to the first official results published today by the National Electoral Institute (INE).
The former mayor of Mexico City won between 58 and 60 percent of the vote according to official sample results, said Guadalupe Tadei, president of the National Electoral Institute.
Her opposition rival, former center-right senator Xochitl Galvez, won from 26 to 28 percent of the votes in these elections, which are held in one round, said the president of the Institute.
In third place is Jorge Alvares Maynes, who received between nine and 10 percent of the vote.
“I will not disappoint you,” Sheinbaum promised in her first television statements after the announcement of the first partial official results, according to which she achieved a convincing victory in yesterday’s presidential elections.
“I will become the first woman president of Mexico,” she said in an address to her supporters and announced that her Movement for National Regeneration (Morena) party had won a “qualified majority” in Congress.
This means that, barring a big surprise, a woman will almost certainly get the highest political position in Mexico, where around 10 women or girls are killed every day.
That perspective motivates other women to succeed and to think “yes, you can,” said Blanca Sosa, a 31-year-old store worker in Mexico City.
She expects Sheinbaum to continue the “good things” done by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, such as pensions for the elderly and increased minimum wages.
Ricardo Sanchez, however, said he plans to vote for Galvez because of her “business vision.”
Obrador’s “policy of putting the poor first is to destroy us all so that we are poor, and then he gives us,” said the 55-year-old businessman in the northern city of Monterrey.
Sheinbaum, 61, owes much of his popularity to Lopez Obrador, a fellow leftist and mentor who has more than 60 percent approval but is only allowed to serve one term, Fena writes.
Photo: Britannica
