Claudia Sheinbaum has won Mexico’s election and is set to become the country’s first woman president, according to an official quick count.
The ruling party candidate had between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote – an unassailable lead, a statistical sample showed, according to the National Electoral Institute.
Opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez, a female rival, received 26.6%-28.6% and Jorge Alvarez Maynez picked up 9.9%-10.8%.
Speaking outside a hotel in the capital Mexico City, Morena candidate Ms Sheinbaum said: “For the first time in the 200 years of the republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico.”
She said her two competitors had called her and conceded she had won.
The 61-year-old climate scientist, who is a former Mexico City mayor, campaigned on continuing the political course set over the last six years by her mentor, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was elected in 2018.
His popularity among the poor helped drive her triumph at the ballot box.
In her victory speech, Ms Sheinbaum thanked Mr Lopez Obrador as “a unique person who has transformed our country for the better”.
She has vowed to carry on with his policies, including a universal pension for the elderly and a programme paying youths to undertake apprenticeships.
Ms Sheinbaum said: “We will dedicate public funds to continue the president’s social programmes.”
She also said there would be a “friendly relationship” with the United States, adding “we will always defend Mexicans” in the US.
She must balance promises to increase popular welfare policies while inheriting a large budget deficit and low economic growth.
The ruling coalition was also on track for a possible two-thirds super majority in both houses of Congress which would
allow the coalition to pass constitutional reforms without opposition support, according to results from the electoral authority.
Mexico’s election was its biggest ever, with more than 20,000 congressional and local positions up for grabs, according to the National Electoral Institute.
It was also its bloodiest in modern history after the number of assassinated candidates reached 38 before election day.
Sunday’s vote was also marred by the killing of two people at polling stations in Puebla state.
Opposition presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez. Pic: AP
Jorge Alvarez Maynez. Pic: AP
Ms Sheinbaum has vowed to improve security but has given few details, and analysts said organised crime groups expanded and deepened their influence during Mr Lopez Obrador’s term.
Over 185,000 people have been killed during his rule – more than during any other administration in Mexico’s modern history, although the homicide rate has been edging down.
The country’s constitution prohibits the president from being re-elected.
Ms Sheinbaum is the first woman to win a general election in the US, Mexico or Canada.
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Mexico is a nation known for its macho culture and is home to the world’s second biggest Roman Catholic population, which for years pushed more traditional values and roles for women.
“I never imagined that one day I would vote for a woman,” said 87-year-old Edelmira Montiel, a Sheinbaum supporter in Mexico’s smallest state Tlaxcala.
“Before we couldn’t even vote, and when you could, it was to vote for the person your husband told you to vote for. Thank God that has changed and I get to live it,” she added.