MEXICO CITY.- This Sunday, Mexico celebrates a momentous election in which, for the first time, two women are competing for the presidency of the country. Claudia Sheinbaumcandidate of the ruling Morena party, and Xochitl Galvezrepresentative of an opposition coalition, offer completely different visions for the future of the nation.
The election is considered a referendum on the president’s management Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who expanded social programs and militarized the country, without managing to reduce insecurity or organized crime. Sheinbaum, former mayor of Mexico City, seeks to continue López Obrador’s legacy, while Gálvez, a businesswoman and former senator, presents herself as the alternative for profound change, focusing her campaign on security and peace.
In San Andrés Totoltepec, on the outskirts of the capital, Stephania Navarrete, a 34-year-old housewife, waits to vote. Despite her criticism of López Obrador, she supports Sheinbaum. “For me, having a female president represents significant progress. Social programs are important, but violence is my biggest concern,” Navarrete told The Associated Press.
Nearly 100 million Mexicans are called to vote in these elections, which will not only determine the presidency but also the composition of Congress, nine governorships and more than 19,000 local positions. Abroad, approximately 675,000 Mexicans are registered to vote, although historic turnout has been low.
The polls close at 6:00 p.m. (00:00 GMT) and the first preliminary results are expected to be known from 9:00 p.m. (03:00 GMT).
Sheinbaum is committed to continuity, ensuring the support of the popular sectors that support López Obrador. However, this leaves him little room to propose changes to the current president’s most controversial policies. For his part, Gálvez criticizes López Obrador’s security strategy of “hugs, not bullets” and denounces that his way of governing puts democracy at risk, due to his confrontations with autonomous organizations and the Judiciary.
A third candidate, Jorge Álvarez Máynezof the Citizen Movement, is in a distant third place.
Eunice Carlos, 70, maintained that the six years of this government “were a martyrdom.” “He has been a very disastrous president, in the first place because he divided us (…) My vote goes for democracy with Xóchitl Gálvez,” she said.
Morena, López Obrador’s party, governs in 23 of the 32 states and seeks to expand its majority in Congress to be able to reform the Constitution without the need for consensus, which worries the opposition.
The campaign has been marked by political violence, with almost thirty candidates murdered and numerous attacks and threats. In Guerrero, a mayoral candidate was shot during a rally, and in Chiapas, an electoral office was burned. More than 27,000 uniformed personnel, mainly from the National Guard, have been deployed to ensure the security of the voting, also supervised by international observers from the Organization of American States.
Challenges of the next government
The expansion of organized crime, which feeds on other crimes such as extortion, “is the most intimidating problem” that whoever becomes president will have to face, said Michael Shifter, a researcher at the Inter-American Dialogue analysis center, based in Washington.
It will also have the challenge of maintaining social programs when the fiscal deficit rose to 5.9% and the average growth in the last six years was barely 0.8%.
Another challenge will be the complex relationship with the United States, the destination of 80% of Mexican exports, especially if Donald Trump returns to power, Shifter warned.
Trump threatened mass deportations of migrants crossing the almost 3,200 km binational border. Furthermore, in 2026 the two countries and Canada must renegotiate their T-MEC trade agreement.
Source: With information from AP and AFP
