Mexico elects Claudia Sheinbaum as first female president

* Tinubu congratulates Mexico’s first female president

Claudia Sheinbaum has been elected as Mexico’s first female president, in a historic landslide win.
Mexico’s official electoral authority said preliminary results showed the 61-year-old former mayor of Mexico City winning between 58% and 60% of the vote in Sunday’s election.
That gives her a lead of about 30 percentage points over her main rival, businesswoman Xóchitl Gálvez.
Ms Sheinbaum will replace her mentor, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on 1 October.
Getty Images  Supporters of Presidential candidate for the ruling Morena party, Claudia Sheinbaum, gather to celebrate following the results of the 2024 Mexico’s presidential elections, at Zocalo square, in Mexico City, Mexico on June 03, 2024. Getty Images
Ms Sheinbaum, a former energy scientist, has promised continuity, saying that she will continue to build on the “advances” made by Mr López Obrador, further building on the welfare programmes which have made the outgoing president very popular.
But in her victory speech she also highlighted what has set this Mexican election apart from previous ones. She told cheering voters: “For the first time in the 200 years of the [Mexican] Republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico.”
She said it was an achievement not just for her but for all women.
“I’ve said it from the start, this is not just about me getting [to the top office], it’s about all of us getting here.”
She added: “I won’t fail you.”
Ms Sheinbaum also thanked her rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, who has conceded victory.
Prior to running for president, Ms Sheinbaum was mayor of Mexico City, one of the most influential political positions in the country and one that is seen as paving the way for the presidency.
Ms Sheinbaum, whose Jewish maternal grandparents immigrated to Mexico from Bulgaria fleeing the Nazis, had an illustrious career as a scientist before delving into politics. Her paternal grandparents hailed from Lithuania.
Both of her parents were scientists and Ms Sheinbaum studied physics before going on to receive a doctorate in energy engineering.
She spent years at a renowned research lab in California studying Mexican energy consumption patterns and became an expert on climate change.
That experience and her student activism eventually earned her the position of secretary of the environment for Mexico City at the time when Andrés Manuel López Obrador was mayor of the capital.
In 2018 she became the first female mayor of Mexico City, a post she held until 2023, when she stepped down to run for president.
The election, which pitted Ms Sheinbaum against Ms Gálvez, has been described as a sea change for women in Mexico.
Edelmira Montiel, 87, said that she was grateful to be alive to see a woman elected to the top office.
“Before, we couldn’t even vote, and when you could, it was to vote for the person your husband told you to vote for. Thank God that has changed and I get to live it,” she told Reuters news agency, referring to the fact that women were only allowed to vote in national elections in 1953.
While the fact that the two front-runners were women was widely celebrated, the campaign was marred by violent attacks.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday congratulated Ms. Claudia Sheinbaum on her election as the first female President of Mexico.
A statement by Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President, Media and Publicity, said the President also congratulated the Mexican people and called for the strengthening of bilateral ties between the two nations in areas of mutual interest.
“The election of Sheinbaum accents women’s voices in government and shatters the political glass ceiling.
“It sends a reverberating message across the world that women must not only be participants but principal architects in shaping and implementing decisions affecting the lives of many,” Tinubu said.
Sheinbaum won the Mexican presidential election by a landslide, becoming the first female President in the country since its independence in 1821.