Mexico set to elect its first woman president in landslide victory as ruling party declares Claudia Sheinbaum the winner by ‘large margin’

It appears that Claudia Sheinbaum will become the left-wing head of government in Mexico City The first female president of North America after being declared the winner by Mexico’s ruling party.

Pollster Parametria predicted that Sheinbaum would win a landslide 56 percent of the vote, while opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez would win 30 percent, according to their exit polls. Four other exit polls also said Sheinbaum would win.

Preliminary results will trickle in in the coming hours. Galvez has not relented and told her supporters to be patient for the official results.

A victory for Sheinbaum would be a big step for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture. The winner will begin a six-year term on October 1.

“I never thought that one day I would vote for a woman,” 87-year-old Edelmira Montiel, a Sheinbaum supporter in Mexico’s smallest state, Tlaxcala, said earlier on Sunday.

Mexico’s ruling party declared Claudia Sheinbaum the winner of the presidential election by a “large margin” after polls closed on Sunday, putting her on course to become the country’s first female president

‘We couldn’t even vote before, and when we could, it was voting for the person your husband told you to vote for. Thank God that has changed and I get to experience it,” Montiel added.

Sheinbaum’s ruling MORENA party has also declared its candidate the winner of the Mexico City mayoral race, one of the country’s most important races, although the opposition has disputed that, claiming its own candidate won the contest.

Sunday’s vote was marred by the killing of two people at polling stations in Puebla state. adding to multiple attacks that have been carried out Mexico’s largest election ever and also the most violent in its modern history.

About 38 candidates were killed, with the violence fueling concerns about the threat to democracy from warring drug cartels.

Security fears dominated many voters’ concerns at the ballot box, and Sheinbaum will be tasked with combating organized crime.

There have been more people killed during the term of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador than during any other administration in Mexico’s modern history, although the murder rate has declined during his time in office.

Pre-election polls showed that MORENA and its allies are unlikely to be able to win a two-thirds majority in Congress.

That would make it harder for Sheinbaum to push constitutional reforms past the opposition parties.

Pollster Parametria predicted that Sheinbaum would win a landslide 56 percent of the vote, while opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez (pictured) would win 30 percent, according to their exit polls. Four other exit polls also said Sheinbaum would win

Outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Among the new president’s challenges are tense negotiations with the United States over the massive flows of U.S.-bound migrants crossing Mexico and security cooperation on drug trafficking at a time when the U.S. fentanyl epidemic is raging.

Mexican officials expect these negotiations will become more difficult if Donald Trump wins the US presidency in November.

Trump has pledged to impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese cars made in Mexico and said he would mobilize special forces to fight the cartels.

Domestically, the next president will be tasked with tackling electricity and water shortages and pushing manufacturers to relocate as part of the nearshoring trend, in which companies move their supply chains closer to their key markets.

The election winner will also have to grapple with what to do with Pemex, the state oil giant that has seen production decline and drowning in debt for two decades.

Sheinbaum has pledged to expand welfare programs, even though Mexico is running a large budget deficit this year and the central bank expects sluggish GDP growth of just 1.5% next year.

Lopez Obrador loomed large during the campaign, seeking to turn the vote into a referendum on his political agenda.

Sheinbaum has rejected opposition claims that she is a puppet of Lopez Obrador, although she has pledged to continue many of his policies, including those that have helped Mexico’s poorest.

Political analyst Viri Rios said she thought it was pure sexism for people to think Sheinbaum would be a puppet.

“It’s unbelievable that people can’t believe that she’s going to make her own decisions, and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that she’s a woman,” she said.