Voters elect new leaders after violent campaign

Mexicans will go to the polls on Sunday to almost certainly win the country’s first female president.

In polls with the only male candidate, Jorge Alvarez Menez, both front-runner Claudia Scheinbaum and her main rival Xochitl Galvez are way ahead.

Voters will also elect all members of Mexico’s Congress and the governors of eight states, as well as the head of government in Mexico City.

The campaign was overshadowed by violent attacks that killed more than 20 local candidates across Mexico.

Ms. Sheinbaum is a 61-year-old scientist who served as mayor of Mexico City from 2018 to 2023 and was elected by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Supported by Manuel Lopez Obrador.

López Obrador, who has been in power since 2018, cannot run for the top job again because presidential terms are limited to six years under Mexico’s constitution.

The popular leader – recent polls put his approval rating at nearly 60 percent – has instead backed Ms Sheinbaum, who is part of Morena’s party.

While many of the promises President López Obrador made when he took office have yet to be fulfilled, his efforts to reduce poverty and help Mexico’s elderly have been welcomed by beneficiaries of these social programs.

Having the president’s backing could significantly expand Ms. Sheinbaum’s base, but it also raises questions about her level of independence from a sometimes overwhelming leader.

Ms. Shinebaum stressed that she was fully her own woman, while pledging to continue to build on what she said was Mr. López Obrador’s many achievements.

Their party, Morena, boasts of how millions of Mexicans have been lifted out of poverty over the past six years.

Morena said the number of people living in poverty is declining due to his policies, such as more than doubling the minimum wage.

But economists point to other factors at play, such as an increase in remittances from Mexicans living abroad to friends and family back home.

Opposing Ms. Sheinbaum in the vote is senator and businesswoman Xóchitl Gálvez.

Ms Galvez, 61, was elected by a broad coalition of parties that want to end the rule of Morena’s party.

She and the Coalition of Power and Love Mexico, where she campaigned, have been critical of the increase in violence the country has experienced in the run-up to the election.

Speaking at the closing rally, she told Mexicans that if they voted for her, they would have “the bravest president, a president who truly fights crime.”

Although she has repeatedly mocked the strategy laid out by Mr López Obrador at the start of his term as president, when he promised “hugs not bullets” in the fight against crime, Ms Galvez did not elaborate on how she would Fighting powerful criminal groups These are behind much of the violence plaguing the country.

She has said she would offer police officers higher pay and invest more in overall safety.

But what arguably makes her more popular with voters critical of the outgoing president is her pledge to strengthen institutions that she says Mr. López Obrador has sought to weaken, such as the Constitutional Court and the National Electoral Institute.

Ms Galvez accused Mr López Obrador of being authoritarian and undermining Mexico’s democratic institutions, calling his government “arrogant and arbitrary”.

Whoever wins will take office at the end of September.