Mexico’s presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum reacts during a press conference after the general elections in Mexico City, Mexico, on Sunday. Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, is to be Mexico’s first woman president after she obtained between 58.3 and 60.7 % of the votes during the electoral night, according to the preliminary results announced by the National Electoral Institute. Photo by Jose Mendez/EPA-EFE
June 3 (UPI) — Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum was poised early Monday to win Mexico’s presidential election, according to official election results, which would make her the nation’s first woman leader.
As of early Monday, Sheinbaum of the ruling leftist Morena party had secured between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to quick count results from the National Electoral Institute.
“For the first time in 200 years of the republic, there will be a woman president and she will be transformative,” she said in a statement early Monday on X. “Thanks to each and every Mexican. Today we demonstrated with our vote that we are a democratic people.”
The quick election results show that opposition coalition candidate Xochitl Galvez had won between 26.6% and 28.6% of the vote with Jorge Alvarez Maynez, the candidate for the Citizens’ Movement party, had won between 9.9% and 10.8% of the vote.
Maynez and Galvez have both conceded defeat.
“As she herself made it public, I have congratualted Claudia Sheinbaum for becoming the first woman president in the history of Mexico,” Maynez said on Facebook.
The National Electoral Institute said it expects a voter turnout of about 60%.
Sheinbaum’s one six-year term will begin Oct. 1.
“Today is a glorious day because the people of Mexico have freely and democratically decided that Claudia Sheinbaum will become the first female president in 200 years of our republic’s independent history,” outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in a statement.
“Congratulations to all of us who have the fortune of living in these stellar times of pride and transformation.”
Sheinbaum, 61, responded to his message with gratitude, stating it was an honor to be by his side.
“We will continue making history,” she said. “We will preserve your legacy.”
Sheinbaum is an environmental scientist who served as Mexico City’s secretary of environment under then-Mexico City Mayor Obrador from 2000 to 2006. She is also a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with which she won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change.
She then became the mayor of Tlalpan before becoming Mexico City’s first woman mayor in 2018.