CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM will become Mexico’s first female president after winning last week’s election by a landslide, official results showed today.
Ms Sheinbaum, a leftwinger who is the favoured successor of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — widely known as Amlo — vowed to continue in the direction set by the still very popular incumbent. Nonetheless, she offers a sharp break from Mexico’s male-dominated political culture.
“I promise that I am not going to let you down,” she told a crowd of supporters in Mexico City’s main square, the Zocalo.
The National Electoral Institute’s president announced that Ms Sheinbaum had won between 58.3 per cent and 60.7 per cent of the vote, while right-wing opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez trailed with between 26.6 per cent and 28.6 per cent and Jorge Alvarez Maynez was far behind with between 9.9 per cent and 10.8 per cent.
Ms Sheinbaum's Morena party was also projected to retain its majorities in both chambers of Congress.
The climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor said that her two competitors had called her and conceded defeat.
Amlo said: “Of course, I congratulate Claudia Sheinbaum with all my respect who ended up the winner by a wide margin.”
Ms Sheinbaum has promised to continue all of Amlo’s policies, including a universal pension for the elderly and a programme of paid apprenticeships for young people.
She will also be the first person from a Jewish background to lead the overwhelmingly Catholic country.
The president-elect will start her six-year term on October 1. Mexico’s constitution does not allow re-election.
In the Zocalo, Sara Rios, a retired literature professor at Mexico’s National Autonomous University, said she believed Ms Sheinbaum “is going to work to bring peace to the country and is going to manage to advance, but it is a slow process.”
Fernando Fernandez, a chef, said his highest hope was that the new leader could “improve what Amlo couldn’t do, the price of petrol, crime and drug trafficking, which he didn’t combat even though he had the power.”
Homemaker Stephania Navarrete said that, for her, having a female president shows that women are no longer limited to certain professions.
