Mexico: Claudia Sheinbaum Elected First Woman President

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Facts

• According to official preliminary results, Claudia Sheinbaum has been elected as Mexico's first-ever female president. She will replace her mentor, the outgoing Pres. Andrés Manuel López Obrador.¹
• Her two rivals, Xóchitl Gálvez and Jorge Álvarez Máynez, have reportedly conceded defeat after the National Electoral Institute announced Sheinbaum had received between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote.²
• A former climate scientist who served as mayor of Mexico City between 2018 and 2023, Sheinbaum had been the front-runner, apparently due to the popularity of her longtime ally Obrador.³
• Sheinbaum's Movement of National Regeneration (Morena) party is also set to win a two-thirds supermajority in Congress, which would allow Morena to pass constitutional reforms without opposition support.⁴
• Final results will be determined later this week through vote counts in the presence of party representatives, independent observers, and electoral observers. Sheinbaum will start her six-year term on Oct. 1.⁵
• This election cycle had been the most violent in Mexico's modern history, with 38 candidates assassinated. On the day of voting, two people were killed at polling stations in Puebla state.⁶

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²Associated Press, ³CNN, ⁴Wall Street Journal, ⁵Al Jazeera and ⁶Reuters.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Time. Despite accusations of having a male-dominated culture and negative biases against female leaders, Mexico has become the first North American country to elect a woman as head of government — and her closest rival was a woman as well. This is a clear culmination of a gender parity framework that has been in place for decades in the country.
• Narrative B, as provided by Yahoo News. It's all too convenient to praise gender parity policies for this outcome when Sheinbaum is, in fact, just another female protégé appointed by a populist Latin American leader who can't run for re-election. Given that this story is reminiscent of Dilma Rousseff's rise in Brazil, one can only hope for better luck for Mexico.

Predictions