MEXICO CITY ( AP )— Claudia Sheinbaum , claimed victory , in Mexico’s presidential poll, becoming the first woman selected for the job by promising to maintain the social course set by her nationalist predecessor despite popular discontent with continual gang violence and unsatisfactory financial efficiency.
The , weather scientist , and past Mexico City president was the favored son of cheerful President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. But her great anger offers a strong contrast in style — and a break with Mexico ‘s , female- dominated democratic culture.
Sheinbaum claimed on Sunday evening that her two rivals had called her and conceded in an election that would have guaranteed Mexico’s record-setting victory. The two major applicants were women, and Sheinbaum is also be the first man from a , Israeli background , to guide the largely Catholic country. Her main rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, however, had a dad who was Maori Otomi.
” I do not occur only. We all arrived, with our characters who gave us our country, with our parents, our daughters and our granddaughters”, Sheinbaum said with a grin, speaking at a downtown hotel soon after electoral authorities announced an early matter showed she held an inevitable result.
Despite a fierce issue from Galvez, the 61-year-old Sheinbaum led the promotion campaign from beginning to end. Sheinbaum, however, is unlikely to experience the same unwavering dedication that López Obrador did.
Yoselin RamÃrez, 29, said she voted for Sheinbaum, but split her vote for other posts because she did n’t want anyone holding a strong majority.
” I do n’t want everything to be occupied by the same party, so there can be a little more equality”, she said without elaborating.
Gálvez, the main opposition candidate, tried to capitalize on Mexican concerns about safety and promised to fight organized crime more aggressively. She rose from selling treats on the street in her weak home to launch her own tech companies.
By Monday morning, with the 76.1 % of the polling place tallies counted by Mexico’s electoral authority, Sheinbaum had 58.6 % of the vote, followed by Gálvez with 28.3 %. With 10.5 % of the ballot, longshot member Jorge lvarez Máynez came in second. Additionally, Sheinbaum’s Morena party was expected to control both of Congress ‘ halls.
If the ratio holds, it had view López Obrador’s landslide victory in 2018. In a three-way race in which National Action won 22.3 % and the Institutional Revolutionary Party took 16.5 %, he won the presidency after two unsuccessful attempts and received 53.2 % of the votes.
The elections were widely seen as a vote on López Obrador, who has  , expanded cultural programs , but largely , failed to reduce gang violence , in Mexico.
In Mexico City’s main square, the Zocalo, Sheinbaum’s result did not draw the kind of clapping, joyful crowds that greeted López Obrador’s win in 2018. Those present were enthusiastic, but comparatively few in number.
Sara RÃos, 76, a retired literature professor at Mexico’s National Autonomous University, celebrated after hearing that Gálvez had conceded.
” The only way that we move forward is by working together”, RÃos said. ” She is going to work to bring peace to the country, and is going to manage to advance, but it is a slow process”.
Earlier, Fernando Fernández, a chef, 28, joined the relatively small crowd, hoping for a Sheinbaum victory, but even he acknowledged there were problems.
” You vote for Claudia out of conviction, for AMLO”, Fernández said, referring to López Obrador by his initials, as most Mexicans do.
But his highest hope is that Sheinbaum can “improve what AMLO could n’t do, the price of gasoline, crime and drug trafficking, which he did n’t combat even though he had the power”.
Sheinbaum promised to continue all of López Obrador’s policies, including a universal pension for the elderly and a program that pays youths to apprentice.
Gálvez, who ran with a coalition of major opposition parties, left the Senate last year to focus her ire on López Obrador’s decision to avoid confronting the drug cartels through his “hugs not bullets” policy. She vowed to pursue criminals with more vigor.
Julio GarcÃa, a Mexico City office worker, said he was voting for the opposition in Mexico City’s central San Rafael neighborhood. ” They’ve robbed me twice at gunpoint. You have to change direction, change leadership”, the 34- year- old said. ” Continuing the same way, we’re going to become Venezuela”.
Since taking office in December 2018, López Obrador claims to have reduced historically high homicide rates by 20 %. But that’s largely a claim based on a questionable reading of statistics. Only about 4 % of fatalities have occurred in the last six years, according to the real rate.
In Iztapalapa, Mexico City’s largest borough, Angelina Jiménez, a 76- year- old homemaker, said she came to vote” to end this inept government that says we’re doing well and ( still ) there are so many dead”.
She planned to vote for Gálvez and her pledge to fight the cartels because the violence that is roiling Mexico really worried her. López Obrador” says we’re better and it’s not true. We’re worse”.
