Mexico elects first female president after race marred by violence

By Georgia Ziebart, ITV News Producer

Claudia Sheinbaum has been elected as Mexico's first female president in the country's 200-year history.

The ruling party candidate had between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to a statistical sample.

That gives her a more than 30% lead over her main rival, businesswoman Xochitl Galvez.

Ms Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor, said on Sunday night that her two competitors had called her and conceded victory.

The 61-year-old had campaigned on continuing the political course set over the last six years by her mentor, the outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

In her victory speech, Ms Sheinbaum told voters: "I won't fail you."

With over 98 million eligible voters, and more than 20,000 public offices being contested, Sunday's election was the largest in the country's history.

But the campaign trail was marred by bloodshed, with dozens of assassination attempts and political violence.

Local candidates in particular were targeted. The Mexican government says more than 20 were killed in the run-up to the vote, although other surveys put the total at 38.

Political scientist Jennifer Piscopo, who specialises in Mexico, told ITV News that Ms Sheinbaum's two biggest issues from day one will be security and the environment.

Ms Sheinbaum has vowed to improve security in the country, which has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

She said that she would expand the quasi-military National Guard created by her predecessor, and continue his strategy of targeting social ills that make many young Mexicans easy targets for cartel recruitment.

"Let it be clear, it doesn't mean an iron fist, wars or authoritarianism," Ms Sheinbaum said of her approach to tackling criminal gangs. "We will promote a strategy of addressing the causes and continue moving toward zero impunity.

Ms Piscopo said no Mexican president in recent memory "has found the winning policy formula for confronting the threat posed by organised crime".

She also noted the crisis facing the south of the country, with most of it in drought and Mexico City facing a water shortage for the foreseeable future.

Political scientist Jennifer Piscopo explains how it's taken decades of reform to finally reach the point where Mexico has elected its first female president

Ms Sheinbaum also promised to continue Mr Lopez Obrador's economic and social policies, including a universal pension for the elderly and a programme that pays youths to work as apprentices.

Her party, Morena, boasts about how millions of Mexicans have been lifted out of poverty in the last six years.

"Our duty is and will always be to look after every single Mexican without distinction," she told supporters in a speech. "We will have to walk in peace and harmony to continue building a fair and more prosperous Mexico."

Who is Claudia Sheinbaum?

Prior to running for president, Ms Sheinbaum was the Mexico City mayor, a position seen in in the country as paving the way for presidency.

The lifelong leftist ran a campaign capitalising on her predecessor's popularity. But while she shares many of Mr Lopez Obrador's views on the government's role in addressing inequality, she is viewed as less combative and more data driven.

Ms Sheinbaum's background is in science. She has a PhD in energy engineering, and she had an illustrious career in science before transitioning to politics.

That background showed itself in her actions as mayor during the Covid-19 pandemic, when her city of some nine million people took a different approach to the national campaign.

While the federal government downplayed the importance of coronavirus testing, Mexico City expanded its testing regimen. Ms Sheinbaum publicly wore protective masks and urged social distancing - while the then-president was still spending time in crowds.

As well as becoming Mexico's first female president, she is also the first leader with a Jewish background - in a country that is home to nearly 100 million Catholics.

Although Ms Sheinbaum is not a practicing Jew, all four of her grandparents were Jewish, emigrating to Mexico from Lithuania and Bulgaria.

"I will become the first woman president of Mexico"

The election, which had two female frontrunners, is seen as something of a turning point for women in Mexico.

Speaking shortly before her victory was confirmed, Ms Sheinbaum said: "I don't make it alone. We've all made it, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our mothers, our daughters, and our granddaughters."

"I am grateful because, for the first time in 200 years of the republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico," she said.

Speaking to the Associated Press, 34-year old homemaker, Stephania Navarrate - who voted for Ms Sheinbaum - said her election would mark a sea change for how women are viewed in the country

"Having a woman president, for me as a Mexican woman, before when for the simple fact that you say you are a woman you're limited to certain professions," she said. "Not anymore."

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