Mexicans vote in historic election expected to choose first woman president
By Tara John and Michelle Velez, CNN
(CNN) — Mexicans headed to the polls on Sunday to vote in a historic election, overshadowed by violence, that is expected to return the country’s first woman president.
The two leading presidential candidates are women: Claudia Sheinbaum from the leftist Morena party and Xochitl Gálvez, from the conservative PAN party, who is representing a coalition of opposition parties.
The third candidate is Jorge Álvarez Máynez, the youngest in the race, who is representing the center-left Citizens’ Movement.
Sunday’s poll is the largest election in the country’s history. More than 98 million voters are registered to cast a ballot in Mexico, and 1.4 million Mexicans are eligible to vote abroad. More than 20,000 positions are set to be filled with an estimated 70,000 candidates vying to become senators, mayors and governors.
Violence has loomed large in this election, the bloodiest in Mexico’s history. Dozens of political candidates and applicants have been killed by criminal organizations trying to influence those coming into power.
While voting was largely peaceful on Sunday, it was suspended in the southeastern Mexican town of Coyomeapan due to violence at the polling centers in the morning, according to state electoral authorities.
The poll is seen by some as a referendum on the policies of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – Sheinbaum’s mentor whose popular social welfare helped poorer Mexicans, but whose “hugs, not bullets” policy of not confronting cartels has not led to a substantial drop in homicide numbers.
He greeted supporters as he voted on Sunday. Meanwhile, as Sheinbaum made her way to cast her ballot, she called for Mexicans to vote, telling reporters: “This is a historic day, I am feeling very happy.” Gálvez told reporters at a polling station that she was expecting it to be a long day and a very close call.
Polls opened at 8 a.m. local time and will close at 6 p.m., according to Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE).
However, on Sunday, some voting stations in parts of the country opened with delays. Long lines were seen in Mexico City, Yucatán, Tuxtla, Cuauhtémoc, and voting centers abroad.
One exasperated woman in Mexico City, who had been waiting for 40 minutes for her polling station to open, said she would not be able to vote before the polls closed at 6 p.m. as she had to go to work.
In Madrid, Spain, expatriate Mexicans told CNN they waited more than eight hours to cast their ballots. One Mexican voter said she had been in line for 11 hours. Authorities are telling them INE is to blame.
Polls were meant to open at 8 a.m. local time in Madrid, but INE posted on social media on Sunday afternoon saying voters waiting in line at embassies in Madrid and Paris could now cast their ballots. They added that the polls will close once 1,500 votes have been cast or everyone who registered votes. CNN has contacted the Mexican Embassy in Madrid for comment.
Of the more than 200,000 expatriate votes expected to come from abroad, more than 70% will be coming from voters living in the United States. Outside the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, thousands of people queued up to vote on Sunday as some in the crowd chanted “Morena” – the name of the ruling party.
Security concerns on the ballot
Whoever is elected will face several challenges, including security, organized crime, energy, and immigration. They will also set the tone for the US-Mexico bilateral relationship.
Outside polling stations, voters told CNN that public security was one of their main concerns.
A minute of silence was held on Sunday by the advisers of the INE in memory of the people who have been murdered during this electoral period. There have been more than 20 political killings since September according to the Mexican government. By some estimates, that number is even higher, at least 34 candidates murdered, according to Mexican consultancy firm, Integralia.
While the murder rate fell in Mexico between 2019 and 2022, in absolute numbers the country is still reeling from historically high levels of homicides of around 30,000 each year, experts say.
Both Sheinbaum and Gálvez have largely remained coy about their proposals regarding security. Neither has repudiated a nearly two-decades-long approach of relying on the armed forces to tackle organized crime – which has coincided with the high numbers of homicides.
The central challenge for the next president will be convincing voters that she can end the culture of impunity in Mexico, where around 95% of all crimes nationwide went unsolved in 2022, according to the think tank Mexico Evalua.
US officials are closely monitoring the presidential election as it comes at a critical time for the Biden administration. A record number of migrants at the US-Mexico border has been seized upon by Republicans who claim it as proof of the Biden administration’s impotence, pushing immigration control to a top election issue.
In recent months, the US has relied heavily on Mexico to step up immigration enforcement and help stem the flow of migration to the US’ southern border. The election in Mexico has raised uncertainty in the minds of some Biden officials about what, if anything, will change with a key partner when it comes to border cooperation.
“Whether we’re talking about elections in Mexico or here in the US, it always provokes a level of uncertainty with everyone, generally, but especially in the migrant population,” a Homeland Security official previously told CNN.
CNN’s Gustavo Valdés, Karol Suarez, Priscilla Alvarez and Esha Mitra contributed to this report.
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