Mexico’s most populous state turned its back on decades of single-party rule, and moved forward with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party over the long-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
The preliminary forecast from electoral authorities on Sunday night indicated a victory for MORENA gubernatorial candidate for the State of Mexico Delfina Gomez, which was later confirmed by PRI candidate Alejandra del Moral’s concession speech.
Official ballot counting continued through the night.
Photo: Bloomberg
The result was a new low for the PRI, which governed Mexico uninterrupted for 71 years until losing power in 2000, and had ruled the State of Mexico for even longer until its loss on Sunday.
A representative sampling of voting stations hours after polls closed indicated that Gomez was likely to win 52.1 percent to 54.2 percent of the ballots, compared with 43 percent to 45.2 percent for del Moral, the Mexican National Electoral Institute said, adding that the sampling had at least 95 percent certainty.
By midnight, more than half of ballots had been counted and the margin was holding.
“There is going to be a different governance,” Gomez said late on Sunday night, before cheering supporters in State of Mexico capital, Toluca.
The state’s first female governor-to-be confirmed her commitment to the mothers of missing people and victims of femicide, and called for the public to denounce corruption.
The PRI-led coalition held on to the governorship in the sparsely populated northern border state of Coahuila, where after 80 percent of ballots had been counted, PRI coalition candidate Manolo Jimenez led by 35 points over the MORENA challenger.
However, losing the State of Mexico was a heavy blow to its political fortunes.
The contest was closely watched, because of its potential implications for next year’s presidential elections. Even without having selected its nominee, MORENA is considered the frontrunner in that national election and would be even more so with control of the State of Mexico.
The State of Mexico surrounds Mexico City on three sides, encompassing urban sprawl and rural ranches, as well as inequality, violence and corruption.
For decades it has been the heart of the PRI.
Tecnologico de Monterrey university political scientist Georgina de la Fuente said that Sunday’s results highlight several things: the PRI has been defeated, but perhaps not as soundly as expected; MORENA is not invincible; and parties are going to have to reconfigure their agreements.
The smooth elections confirmed the effectiveness of Mexico’s electoral system, whose authorities had come under heavy fire from Lopez Obrador, she said.
The loss of the State of Mexico could spell the end of the PRI’s political relevance on the national stage, she added.
Turnout was only about half of eligible voters in the State of Mexico.
“It doesn’t seem like the elections have excited” people, said Miguel Agustin Lopez Moreno, a political scientist and social worker in Ecatepec, one of the state’s largest municipalities.
He was uncertain that the situation for residents would change significantly, attributing the party’s success in large part to the amount of resources it invested in the state.
Adair Ortiz Herrera, a 21-year-old information systems student from Coyotepec, a rural area in the northern part of the state, said before the results were announced that he was sure “a new direction” was coming.
“My vote is to end the current government’s hegemony,” he said.
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