Mexico elects first woman president

Claudia Sheinbaum is set to become Mexico’s first ever female president after she was projected to have won elections at the weekend, officials have said, citing preliminary results. Rival candidates have already congratulated the 61-year-old, who is from the ruling Morena party and previously served as mayor of Mexico City.

In addition to choosing a new head of state, who will serve a single six-year term, Mexicans also elected members of both the lower and upper chambers of the country’s parliament during polling on Sunday.

In a video message posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, the head of the National Electoral Institute, Guadalupe Taddei, revealed that turnout was estimated at between 60% and 61.5%.

Sheinbaum, who was the clear frontrunner in the presidential race, has garnered between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to preliminary results based on rapid sample counts.

Xochitl Galvez of the opposition center-right Strength and Heart for Mexico coalition – which comprises the National Action Party, Institutional Revolutionary Party, and the Party of the Democratic Revolution – is estimated to have finished second with 26.6%-28.6% of the vote. Jorge Alvarez Maynez of the left-wing Citizens’ Movement trailed in third with a 9.9%-10.8% share.

Addressing her supporters as preliminary results began to emerge, Sheinbaum described herself as “grateful,” noting that “for the first time in the 200 years of the republic, I will become the first female president of Mexico.”

“Our duty is and will be to always look after every single Mexican, [making] no distinctions,” she added, vowing to bring more justice, democracy, and prosperity to the country.

In a video address to the nation posted on X, outgoing President Lopez Obrador congratulated Sheinbaum, describing her expected triumph as a “day of glory” and “stellar times of pride and transformation.”

He also described Mexico’s population as “exemplary,” hailing the elections as proof of that.

Sheinbaum will “possibly be the president with the most votes received in all the history of our country,” Obrador added.

Sheinbaum is of Jewish descent, and her grandparents emigrated to Mexico from Lithuania and Bulgaria. In 2000, she became secretary for the environment of Mexico City – a post she held until 2006, when she left to become a spokesperson for Obrador’s first presidential campaign.

In 2007, Sheinbaum was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for raising public awareness over climate change.

With the backing of the Morena party in 2015, she was elected mayor of Tlalpan, a borough of Mexico City, before going on to become mayor of the capital three years later.