The counting of votes in the largest elections in the history of Mexico advances this Sunday, after the polls close at 6:00 pm local time, in a process marked by delays and long lines in schools around the country and abroad.
The first preliminary results, released in real time by the National Electoral Institute (INE), show a participation of more than 57%. With 5% of the total count, the official candidate Claudia Sheinbaum has 58.9% support.
Her rival, the opposition Xóchitl Gálvez, gathers 28.8%, while the third candidate, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, remains behind with just 9.6% of the votes.
The INE, as anticipated, will prioritize the results of the presidency, one of the positions to be elected in these elections, where positions in the Senate, Chamber of Deputies, eight governorships and the head of Mexico City are also at stake.
Gálvez claims victory, Scheinbaum remains silent
An hour after the polls closed, Xóchitl Gálvez assured that “it is clear that we have already won,” despite the fact that the vote counting process continues. Gálvez praised the “extraordinarily high” participation of Mexicans on election day.
Given the long lines evident, the candidate assured that it was “moving” to see the long lines of citizens “waiting for hours under the sun to vote,” the candidate added.
“Do not move from your places, continue with your work until you finish counting the last vote and receive the minutes and then accompany and guard all the electoral packages until they are delivered to the committee,” Gálvez told the electoral officials.
The ruling party Claudia Scheinbaum, for her part, preferred to wait for the official results. In his place, after closing the polls, the president of his Morena party spoke, Mario Delgado, who assured that his exit polls give a “very wide advantage, two to one difference” to the former mayor of Mexico City and ally of the outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The Voice of America spoke with voters in Mexico City, who in some cases claimed to have waited up to three hours to vote.
Melissa Sistos, a 30-year-old voter, said that electoral officials told her that she had to wait several hours to vote, and although the wait discouraged her, “it was important to get here because everyone’s vote counts… I would like to see a Mexico where we are take everyone into account, especially women,” he told the VOA.
Throughout the country, long lines of voters could be seen who waited, some for hours, to be able to exercise their right before the accumulation of people in the voting centers, but also due to the delay in the activation of the 170,000 polling stations enabled throughout the country. .
Shortly after four in the afternoon, the National Electoral Institute (INE) reported that 169,236 had been installed, for 99.99% of the total.
“Huge influx” of voters abroad
Mexicans residing outside the country also came to vote en masse in the dozens of polling stations set up in consulates in Europe, Canada, the United States and Latin American countries. The Voice of America He was able to see the long lines in American cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Orlando.
According to preliminary data, one hour after closing, some 180,676 voters had already voted, a figure that exceeded the participation in previous elections, said the Electoral Council of the INE, Arturo Castillo.
The electoral authorities promoted the advance registration of Mexican citizens abroad in the three voting modalities: electronic, by postal mail and in person. They warned that on election day they would serve those registered and 1,500 voters who showed up without being previously registered.
In several locations, unregistered voters who showed up to vote exceeded the number of 1,500 ballots available for that day.
In the New York city, the city police cordoned off the consulate and deployed their anti-riot unit after incidents between voters and heckling of journalists.
“We have seen a huge influx of Mexican men and women that far exceeded expectations,” said Castillo, who acknowledged difficulties and delays. “We are doing everything possible to speed up the processing processes,” she insisted.
Voting abroad ended at the same time that the polls closed in Mexico, although electoral authorities warned that they would advise voters formed until the deadline of 6:00 pm Mexican time.
Violence during voting
The day passed without major incidents, according to electoral authorities, although in several states such as Guerrero, Chiapas and Queretaro, the burning of ballots and boxes was reported. At a school in the city of Coyomeapan, in the central Mexican state of Puebla, voting was suspended after a shooting that left two people dead, according to the state electoral authority.
In Photos | General elections in Mexico
The largest election day in the history of Mexico is taking place this Sunday. Mexican citizens must elect 20,079 public positions, including the presidency and Senate positions.
The state prosecutor’s office later confirmed the death of another person at a voting center in Tlapanalá, also in Puebla.
Earlier in the morning, the murder of a candidate for trustee in the western state of Michoacán was reported, bringing the number of dead candidates to 38. in these elections marked by violence.
[Con información de Reuters y The Associated Press]
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