Mexico elects Claudia Sheinbaum as its first female president Khabritak 
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s projected presidential winner Claudia Sheinbaum will become the first female president in the country’s 200-year history.
Sheinbaum, the favored successor of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, vowed to continue on the direction set by the populist leftist leader. But the cool-tempered scientist offers a sharp contrast in style — and a break with Mexico’s male-dominated political culture.
“I promise that I am not going to let you down,” Sheinbaum said, greeting supports in Mexico City’s colonial-era main plaza, the Zocalo.
The National Electoral Institute’s president said Sheinbaum had between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, while opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez had between 26.6% and 28.6% and Jorge Álvarez Máynez had between 9.9% and 10.8% of the vote. Sheinbaum’s Morena party was also projected to hold its majorities in both chambers of Congress.
Catch the highlights from the AP’s coverage as Claudia Sheinbaum made history.
The climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor said that her two competitors had called her and conceded her victory.
The official preliminary count put Sheinbaum 28 points ahead of Gálvez with nearly 50% of polling places reporting.
The fact that the two leading candidates were women had left little doubt that Mexico would make history Sunday.
“As I have said on other occasions, I do not arrive alone,” Sheinbaum said shortly after her victory was confirmed. “We all arrived, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters.”
Sheinbaum will also be the first person from a Jewish background to lead the overwhelmingly Catholic country.
She will start her six-year term Oct. 1. Mexico’s constitution does not allow reelection.
Voters choosing Mexico’s next president will decide Sunday between a former academic who promises to further the current leader’s populist policies and an ex-senator and tech entrepreneur who pledges to up the fight against deadly drug cartels.
The leftist has said she believes the government has a strong role to play in addressing economic inequality and providing a sturdy social safety net, much like her political mentor.
López Obrador’s anointed successor, the 61-year-old Sheinbaum consistntly led in polls despite a spirited challenge from Gálvez. This was the first time in Mexico that the two main opponents were women.
“Of course, I congratulate Claudia Sheinbaum with all my respect who ended up the winner by a wide margin,” López Obrador said shortly after the electoral authorities’ announcement. “She is going to be Mexico’s first (female) president in 200 years.”
If the margin holds it would approach his landslide victory in 2018. López Obrador won the presidency after two unsuccessful tries with 53.2% of the votes, in a three-way race where National Action took 22.3% and the Institutional Revolutionary Party took 16.5%.
