Mexico | Historic election of a first president, deadly attacks in polling stations

(Mexico) Violence has overtaken the elections in Mexico where 98.3 million registered voters are preparing on Sunday, barring any drama, to elect the first woman president in the history of a country plagued by drug trafficking and where the UN counts around ten feminicides per day.

Two people were killed in two attacks on polling stations on Sunday during these elections which must decide between the favorite for the presidential election, the candidate of the left in power Claudia Sheinbaum, from her rival Xochitl Galvez.

The two attacks were recorded in two localities in the central state of Puebla, a local government security source said.

A candidate for local elections had already been killed in the same state on Friday. Another candidate for a minor mandate was killed in the night a few hours before the opening of polling stations in the west, according to the prosecution.

At least 25 candidates were assassinated during the campaign, according to an AFP count taken on Saturday.

In the capital, the two favorites and the outsider Jorge Alvarez Maynez voted in the morning.

“Go out without fear” to vote, said the opposition candidate, former center-right senator Xochitl Galvez, while waiting a long time under the blazing sun to vote.

“We already know that in some parts of Chiapas the polling stations will not be set up, I am very sorry for that. These elections were the most violent in our country’s history, but they also represent a tremendous opportunity to keep democracy alive and I believe there is significant turnout,” she added.

“A historic day. I feel very happy,” the favorite, the ruling left candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, declared to the press after voting in the south of Mexico.

In three months of campaigning, the former mayor of the capital, candidate of the Movement for National Regeneration (Morena), was regularly ahead of his center-right rival, Xochitl Galvez, by an average of 17 points, supported by a coalition of three parties. .

Claudia Sheinbaum confided that she had not voted for herself in the presidential election, but for a pioneer of the Mexican left, Ifigenia Martinez, 93, in tribute to her struggle. “Long live democracy! », concluded M^me Sheinbaum.

In Mexico, where 98.3 million people are registered on the electoral lists according to the National Electoral Institute (INE), the ballot papers provide an empty box allowing people to vote for unregistered candidates.

“Women’s time”

The third candidate, Jorge Alvarez Maynez, 38, took his young son into the voting booth for a first civics lesson. “Our democracy is imperfect […] but we have moved forward as a country,” said the Citizen Movement (MC) representative after voting.

From Cancun (southeast) to Mexico City, lines began to form as soon as polling stations opened at 8 a.m. local time (10 a.m. Eastern time).

“I think it’s going to be historic in terms of participation,” says Ana Hernandez, 28, a political scientist, in front of a polling station in the capital.

Clemencia Hernandez, a 55-year-old housekeeper, prepares to vote for Caudia Sheibaum in Mexico City. “A female president will be transformational and let’s hope she does more for this country.” Violence against women is 100% here. Many women are subjugated by their partners, who do not let them leave the house to work,” she says.

“No government before had been so concerned about the elderly,” she argues, referring to outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Claudia Sheinbaum’s political mentor.

Eunice Carlos, a 70-year-old retiree waiting to vote in the residential district of Polanco, judges on the contrary that Mr. Lopez Obrador was “a very harmful president, first of all because he divided us”. “My vote is in favor of democracy with Xochitl Galvez.”

Voters are also called upon to renew Congress and the Senate, choose governors in nine of the 32 states and appoint local deputies and mayors.

In total, 20,000 positions are to be filled during these one-round elections. The first trends for the presidential election will be known a few hours after the closing of polling stations on the Pacific coast.

“It’s the time for women and transformation,” proclaimed Claudia Sheinbaum, buoyed by the popularity of the outgoing president, during her last campaign rally on Wednesday in Mexico City.

“This means living without fear and being free from violence,” added M^me Sheinbaum. Every day, an average of nine to ten women are murdered in Mexico, according to UN Women.

Of modest origin, born to an indigenous father, business manager, her rival Xochitl Galvez denounced the failure of the security policy of the outgoing government, speaking of “186,000 people murdered and 50,000 people missing” since 2018 .