2024 – Mexico | Historic election of a first president

(Mexico) Mexico goes to the polls on Sunday and is preparing to elect, barring any drama, the first female president in the history of the country, plagued by violence linked to drug trafficking and where the UN counts around ten femicides a day .

“A historic day. I feel very happy,” ruling left-wing candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, a presidential election favorite, told the press after a vote in the south of the capital Mexico City.

In three months of campaigning, the former mayor of Mexico City, candidate of the Movement for National Regeneration (Morena), regularly outpaced his center-right rival, Xochitl Galve, by an average of 17 points.
z, supported by a coalition of three parties.

Claudia Sheinbaum confided that she did not vote for herself in the presidential elections, but for a pioneer of the Mexican left, Ifigenia Martinez, 93, in tribute to her struggle. “Long live democracy!” », concluded M^me Sheinbaum.

In Mexico, where according to the National Electoral Institute (INE) there are 98.3 million people on the electoral rolls, ballot papers provide an empty box for people to vote for unregistered candidates.

“I am very optimistic,” said opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez after casting her vote. The former center-right senator stated during the campaign that she was counting on a “hidden vote” in her favor that would have escaped the polls.

M^me Galvez voted after a long wait under the scorching sun, like many Mexicans. According to testimonies from Milenio TV, several polling stations opened late in different places in the country.

“Women’s Time”

The third candidate, Jorge Alvarez Maynez, 38, brought his son to the voting booth for a social studies lesson.

“It is an imperfect democracy. (…) but we have progressed as a country,” said the representative of the Citizen Movement (MC) after the vote.

Violence topped election day in the world’s largest Spanish-speaking country, which also hosts local elections, with the killing of a candidate for office in the western state of Michoacan.

Israel Delgado, 35, was shot and killed Saturday evening. Before him, at least 25 candidates had been murdered, according to AFP counts.

From Cancun (southeast) to Mexico City, lines began to form as soon as polls opened at 8 a.m. local time (10 a.m. Eastern Time).

“I think it’s going to be historic in terms of participation,” said Ana Hernandez, 28, a political scientist, outside a polling station in the capital.

Clemencia Hernandez, a 55-year-old housekeeper, prepares to vote for Caudia Sheibaum in Mexico City. “A female president will bring about a transformation and let’s hope she does more for this country.” Violence against women is 100% here. Many women are subjugated by their partners, who do not let them leave the house to work,” she says.

“No government has been so concerned about the elderly before,” she argues, referring to outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Claudia Sheinbaum’s political mentor.

In contrast, Eunice Carlos, a 70-year-old retiree waiting to vote in the residential area of ​​Polanco, judged that Mr Lopez Obrador was “a very damaging president, first of all because he divided us”. “My vote is for democracy with Xochitl Galvez.”

Voters are also called on to renew Congress and the Senate, elect governors in nine of the 32 states and appoint local representatives and mayors.

A total of 20,000 positions will be filled during these single-round elections. The first trends for the presidential election will become known a few hours after the polls close on the Pacific coast.

“It is the time for women and transformation,” shouted Claudia Sheinbaum, buoyed by the outgoing president’s popularity, at her final campaign rally Wednesday in Mexico City.

“This means living without fear and freedom from violence,” added M^me Sheinbaum. According to UN Women, an average of nine to ten women are murdered every day in Mexico.

From humble origins, born to an indigenous father, a business manager, her rival Xochitl Galvez denounced the failure of the outgoing government’s security policies and spoke of “186,000 people murdered and 50,000 people missing” since 2018.

Cartel violence

Fighting the violence of cartels, gangs and gangs will be the first challenge for the future president, said Michael Shifter, researcher at the analysis center Dialogo Interamericano, headquartered in Washington.

In total, some 450,000 people have been killed since 2006, when former President Felipe Calderon sent the army against the cartels.

M^me Sheinbaum vowed to continue the current policy of tackling the causes of the violence instead of repression, while at the same time combating ‘impunity’. M^me Galvez said she wanted to end the “bait” for the cartels.