OAN’s Abril Elfi
3:30 PM – Sunday, June 2, 2024
Mexican citizens are preparing to vote in a historic election that will decide who will become the first woman president.
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At 8 a.m. local time, the polls opened. There were long lines outside voting centers all around the world. Those outside of the country were lined up at the Mexican Consulate in their area.
There are approximately 20,000 posts on the ballots, making this election the largest in Mexico’s history.
Based on opinion polls, Claudia Sheinbaum has been the front-runner. She has a considerable lead over her main rival, Xochitl Galvez, who is a member of an opposition coalition that includes the leftist PRD party, the right-wing PAN, and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for nearly 70 years until democrat elections in 2000.
Sheinbaum, who is Mexico City’s former mayor, told reporters she felt at ease and happy on her way to vote.
“Everyone must get out to vote,” Sheinbaum said.
Outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum’s mentor, walked out of the presidential palace with his wife, Beatriz Gutierrez Muller, waving to supporters and posing for pictures.
Candidate Galvez also chatted with supporters as she arrived to cast her ballot.
“God is with me,” Galvez said, adding that she was expecting a difficult day.
Sheinbaum has pledged to continue Lopez Obrador’s political project, and the candidate has hovered over the campaign, trying to turn the vote into a referendum on it.
38 candidates were killed during the campaign, including a local candidate who was shot to death the night before the election, adding to the violent nature of this year’s elections. The death toll is the greatest in the nation’s recent history, raising worries about how Mexico’s democracy may be threatened by rival drug cartels.
The winner will have to overcome many obstacles, such as controlling organized crime, violence, a lack of water and electricity, and getting manufacturers to move as part of the nearshoring movement, which sees businesses moving supply chains closer to their primary markets.
The next president will also need to consider how to handle Pemex, the massive state oil company whose output has been declining for the past 20 years and which is heavily indebted.
Both candidates have pledged to increase welfare spending, which may prove difficult given the significant deficit this year and the central bank’s prediction of only 1.5% GDP growth the following year.
Whoever is elected will become the first woman president in Mexico’s history. She will begin a six-year term on October 1st.
The polls are set to close at 6 p.m. local time, and preliminary results are expected late Sunday.
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