Claudia Sheinbaum To Be Mexico’s First Female Leader, Exit Polls Say

Frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum is set to become Mexico’s first woman president in a historic win, exit polls suggest. Pollsters predicted that the 61-year-old former mayor of Mexico City had won 56% of the vote in Sunday’s election, convincingly beating her main rival, businesswoman Xóchitl Gálvez.

Ms Sheinbaum’s Morena party has already claimed victory. However, Ms Gálvez urged her supporters to wait for the official results, expected to be announced early on Monday.

Voters were also electing all members of Mexico’s Congress and governors in eight states. This is as well as the head of Mexico City’s government, in the campaign marred by violent attacks.

The government says more than 20 local candidates have been killed across Mexico, although private surveys puts the total at 37.

Two people were reported killed in two attacks on polling stations in the state of Puebla on Sunday, officials said.

Invisible hand of Manuel López Obrador.

Ms Claudia Sheinbaum, a scientist who ran Mexico City in 2018-23, has the backing of the outgoing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Mario Delgado, the president of Mr López Obrador’s party, called her expected victory a “stellar moment in the history of our country”.

Mr López Obrador, who has been in power since 2018, cannot run for the top office again. This is because under Mexico’s constitution, presidents are limited to a single six-year term.

The popular leader – recent polls suggested he had an approval rate of close to 60% – has instead thrown his weight behind Ms Sheinbaum, who is part of his Morena party.

While many of the promises President López Obrador made upon taking office have remained unfulfilled, his efforts to reduce poverty and help elderly Mexicans have been popular with beneficiaries of these social programmes.

Having the backing of the president may have considerably widened Ms Sheinbaum’s base of voters. It has also raised questions about how independent she is of the sometimes overpowering leader.

Ms Sheinbaum has stressed that she is very much her own woman. She also promised to continue building on what she says are Mr López Obrador’s many achievements.

Their party boasts about how millions of Mexicans have been lifted out of poverty during the past six years. Morena says the number of people living in poverty is dwindling thanks to its policies.

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