Claudia Sheinbaum Is the New President of Mexico
Orinoco Tribune, June 3, 2024 —
According to all the exit polls as well as the preliminary result released by the National Electoral Institute (INE) of Mexico, leftist presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, from the ruling Movement for National Regeneration (MORENA) party, is projected to become the new president of Mexico. On Sunday, June 2, 98.9 million Mexicans were eligible to vote in the largest elections in the history of the country.
According to the preliminary results announced by INE on its website, with 25% of the votes counted as of 11:20 a.m. Sunday night, Mexico Central Time, Sheinbaum received 57.3% of the votes while her nearest rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, candidate for the right-wing coalition Broad Front for Mexico, got 30%. If this tendency is maintained, this will be a landslide victory of the leftist candidate who for millions of Mexicans represents the continuation of current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s progressive policies and his Fourth Transformation program.
In these elections, 20,708 positions were up for grabs at the federal, state, and local levels. Among them were the presidency of the republic, the head of government of Mexico City, the governorships of eight states, and the national parliament consisting of 128 senators and 500 congressmembers.
The INE reported that 180,676 votes were cast by Mexicans residing abroad, of which 39,590 were by postal vote, and 139,331 by internet, thus exceeding the figure of 2018.
After the closing of the voting centers around 6:00 p.m., the majority of the exit polls gave Sheinbaum the victory, many giving her a 2 to 1 proportion. Televisa, El Financiero, Enkoll, and other pollsters gave Sheinbaum a wide margin of victory, similar to the preliminary results released by the INE.
The presidential campaign was plagued with smear campaigns on media and social media against the MORENA party candidate. Such smear campaigns, even promoted by US media, tried to associate AMLO to drug cartels, organized crime, and corruption despite his government’s overall clean record. There were also indications of massive use of bot farms by the right, dreaming at returning to power.
Worry about right wing’s possible fraud claim
A few minutes before the INE’s declaration of preliminary results, the far-right opposition candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez, thanked the Mexican people for their participation in the elections and noted that it has been a “historic election.” “We are competing against authoritarianism and power. It was moving to see citizens wait hours in long lines to vote,” she said. She also claimed victory, stating that “from the results throughout the country, it is clear that we have already won.”
Many in Mexico worry about the possibility that the right-wing coalition might try to claim fraud, replicating the strategy of the Venezuelan opposition over the last two decades. However, taking into consideration the landslide margin of Sheinbaum’s imminent victory, this scenario may be less possible.
Mario Delgado, national president of the MORENA party, criticized Xóchitl Gálvez’s “self-proclamation” and stated that “the people decided today that Claudia Sheinbaum will be president.”
“They [the right] are going out to lie to the people, claiming that they have already won, when they know that they have lost,” Delgado said from MORENA’s campaign headquarters. “A democrat is one who respects the verdict of the people and who understands once and for all that in Mexico the people rule, and the people decided today that Claudia Sheinbaum will be president and will construct the second floor of the Fourth Transformation.”
Sheinbaum set to become first woman president of Mexico
While the INE’s result updates continue, Claudia Sheinbaum’s supporters have started to arrive at the Zócalo (main square) of the National Palace in Mexico City, where she is expected to give a victory speech at midnight Mexico city time.
Sheinbaun is set to become the first woman president of Mexico as well as in North America, as neither Canada nor the United States has ever being governed by a woman.
Various Latin American leaders congratulated Claudia Sheinbaum for her imminent victory, including Evo Morales, Alberto Fernández, and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, along with the Puebla Group.
Who is Claudia Sheinbaum
Claudia Sheinbaum, former head of government of Mexico City, has an undergraduate degree in Physics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and a Master’s and a doctorate in Energy Engineering. She has received several recognitions for her career in the academic field. In 2007, she was a Nobel Peace Prize recipient as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an experts’ panel associated with the United Nations that monitors climate change and advises the public and governments on issues related to the environment.
She was born in Mexico City in 1962. She has two children and one grandson. Her husband is Jesús María Tarriba, whom she met at university when they were both studying Physics, and who is currently a specialist in financial risks at the Bank of Mexico.
In 2018 she was elected as the head of government of Mexico City, becoming the first woman to hold that position. Her political career began in 2000, when she assumed the post of the secretary of the Environment of the Federal District, with López Obrador as the head of the District, until 2006.
In 2015, she became the first woman elected head of the delegation (currently municipality) of Tlalpan, a position she held until 2017. In 2018, she became the head of the government of Mexico City, a position she held until June 2023, when she left that post to run for president for the ruling MORENA party, of which she is one of the founders.