Four days after Mexico held presidential elections, government candidate Claudia Sheinbaum was officially declared the winner, making her the first female president in the country’s history.
Former Mexico City Mayor Sheinbaum, of the ruling left-wing Morena party, won 59.75% of the vote, the election authority said late Thursday.
Her main challenger, opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez, came second with 27.45%.
Jorge Álvarez, from the smaller center-left party Movimiento Ciudadano, was always seen as having no chance.
Nearly 100 million citizens were eligible to vote to fill all seats in the House of Representatives and Senate, as well as regional and municipal posts, making it an election day of historic proportions.
While the final results of the parliamentary vote are still pending, Sheinbaum’s Morena party is expected to have secured a solid majority.
The party hopes to win a two-thirds majority in both chambers to single-handedly implement constitutional reforms, including appointing judges by direct vote, a plan that has critics fearing Mexico’s democratic separation of powers. .
After the election, the Mexican stock market suffered losses and the peso, the national currency, lost about 5% of its value against the US dollar.
Sheinbaum is from the same party and a longtime ally of outgoing left-wing populist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The popularity of the president, who was no longer allowed to run after six years as president, helped the 61-year-old scientist win the elections.
Sheinbaum is expected to continue his policies, especially the popular state aid schemes for the young and the elderly.
Although the opposition has conceded defeat, it plans to file a complaint with the Electoral Court over alleged irregularities in the electoral process, denouncing López Obrador’s excessive interference and use of state resources in favor of Sheinbaum.
