MEXICO CITY — Polls closed on Sunday in a nationwide vote that may doubtless give Mexico its first feminine president, however the warmth, violence and polarization continued nearly proper by way of election day.
The polls closed at 5 p.m. on the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles. Individuals who had been left minimize off had been chanting “We wish to vote” in entrance of the consulate.
Folks turned out to vote within the township of Cuitzeo, within the western state of Michoacán, even if a city council candidate was shot to demise by two hitmen aboard a bike simply hours earlier than the election. Residents voted beneath a heavy police guard – however later handed by the house of murdered candidate Israel Delgado to gentle a candle for the well-known native politician at an improvised altar on his doorstep.
Nationwide, the voting was largely peaceable, but it surely appeared that even when the front-runner – former Mexico Metropolis mayor Claudia Sheinbaum – wins, she is unlikely to benefit from the sort of unquestioning devotion that outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has loved. Each belong to the ruling Morena occasion.
Mexican residents residing in Southern California this yr have the chance to vote in Sunday’s presidential election by going to native consulates.
Araceli Hernández, 49, a college professor in worldwide research in Mexico Metropolis, stated she was voting for Morena. “Though there are issues we do not like, like militarization, there was progress.”
Hernández was referring to López Obrador’s coverage of counting on the military and the quasi-military Nationwide Guard, reasonably than police, to struggle crime. Whereas she was going to vote to proceed the ruling occasion’s grip on nationwide politics, she famous “we’re going to proceed to be essential” of some authorities insurance policies.
Mexico Metropolis voter Yoselin Ramírez, 29, stated she voted for Sheinbaum, however break up her vote for different posts as a result of she did not need anybody holding a robust majority.
“I do not need the whole lot to be occupied by the identical occasion, so there is usually a little extra equality,” she stated with out elaborating.
The principle opposition candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez, a tech entrepreneur and former senator, tried to grab on Mexicans’ considerations about safety and promised to take a extra aggressive method towards organized crime.
Almost 100 million individuals are registered to vote within the race to exchange outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Voters had been additionally electing governors in 9 of the nation’s 32 states, and selecting candidates for each homes of Congress, 1000’s of mayorships and different native posts, within the greatest elections the nation has seen and ones which were marked by violence.
The elections are extensively seen as a referendum on López Obrador, a populist who has expanded social packages however largely failed to scale back cartel violence in Mexico. His Morena occasion presently holds 23 of the 32 governorships and a easy majority of seats in each homes of Congress. Mexico’s structure prohibits the president’s reelection.
Each main presidential candidates are girls, and both can be Mexico’s first feminine president. A 3rd candidate from a smaller occasion, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, trailed far behind.
Sheinbaum is operating with the Morena occasion. Sheinbaum, who leads within the race, has promised to proceed all of López Obrador’s insurance policies, together with a common pension for the aged and a program that pays youths to apprentice.
Gálvez, whose father was Indigenous Otomi, rose from promoting snacks on the road in her poor hometown to start out her personal tech companies. A candidate operating with a coalition of main opposition events, she left the Senate final yr to focus her ire on López Obrador’s determination to keep away from confronting the drug cartels by way of his “hugs not bullets” coverage. She has pledged to extra aggressively go after criminals.
The persistent cartel violence, together with Mexico’s middling financial efficiency, are the primary points on voters’ minds.
Julio García, a Mexico Metropolis workplace employee, stated he was voting for the opposition in Mexico Metropolis’s central San Rafael neighborhood. “They’ve robbed me twice at gunpoint. It’s a must to change course, change management,” the 34-year-old stated. “Persevering with the identical manner, we will change into Venezuela.”
On the fringes of Mexico Metropolis within the neighborhood of San Andres Totoltepec, electoral officers filed previous 34-year-old homemaker Stephania Navarrete, who watched dozens of cameramen and electoral officers gathering the place frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum was set to vote.
Navarrete stated she deliberate to vote for Sheinbaum regardless of her personal doubts about López Obrador and his occasion.
“Having a lady president, for me as a Mexican lady, it’ll be like earlier than when for the straightforward reality that you simply say you’re a lady you are restricted to sure professions. Not anymore.”
She stated the social packages of Sheinbaum’s mentor had been essential, however that deterioration of cartel violence up to now few years was her major concern on this election.
“That’s one thing that they should focus extra on,” she stated. “For me safety is the foremost problem. They stated they had been going to decrease the degrees of crime, however no, it was the alternative, they shot up. Clearly, I do not utterly blame the president, however it’s in a sure manner his accountability.”
In Iztapalapa, Mexico Metropolis’s largest borough, Angelina Jiménez, a 76-year-old homemaker, stated she got here to vote “to finish this inept authorities that claims we’re doing properly and (nonetheless) there are such a lot of useless.”
She stated the violence plaguing Mexico actually apprehensive her so she deliberate to vote for opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez, who has promised to tackle the cartels. “(López Obrador) says we’re higher and it isn’t true. We’re worse.”
López Obrador claims to have diminished traditionally excessive murder ranges by 20% since he took workplace in December 2018. However that is largely a declare based mostly on a questionable studying of statistics; the actual murder charge seems to have declined by solely about 4% in six years.
Simply because the upcoming November rematch between Biden and Trump has underscored deep divisions within the U.S., Sunday’s election has revealed how severely polarized public opinion is in Mexico over the course of the nation, together with its safety technique and the best way to develop the economic system.
Past the struggle for management of Congress, the race for Mexico Metropolis – whose prime publish is now thought-about equal to a governorship – can also be necessary. Sheinbaum is simply the most recent of many Mexico Metropolis mayors, together with López Obrador, who went on to run for president. Governorships in massive, populous states equivalent to Veracruz and Jalisco are additionally drawing curiosity.
Polls opened at 8 a.m. and shut at 6 p.m. (0000 GMT Monday) in many of the nation. The primary preliminary, partial outcomes are anticipated by 9 p.m. (0300 GMT Monday) after the final polls in numerous time zones shut.
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Related Press author Fabiola Sánchez contributed to this report.
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