Voters in Mexico went to the polls Sunday to elect a new president. Barring a huge surprise, one of two women is likely to become its first female leader.
In pre-election polling on the eve of the vote, ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor and a scientist by training, held a 17 percentage-point lead over her main opposition rival, Xochitl Galvez.
"It's a historic day. I feel very happy," Sheinbaum, 61, told reporters before heading to a polling station in the capital, Mexico City, declaring, "Long live democracy!" after casting her ballot.
The only man running, centrist Jorge Alvarez Maynez, was far behind in polling.
In a country with nearly 100 million Catholics, Sheinbaum would also be Mexico’s first president of Jewish heritage, although she is not religiously observant, her campaign has said.
Nearly 100 million people were registered to vote in the world's most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to more than 129 million people.
In a nation where politics, crime and corruption are closely entangled, ultra-violent drug cartels have gone to extreme lengths to ensure that their preferred candidates win.
Hours before polls opened, a local candidate was murdered in a violent western state, authorities said, one of at least 25 other political hopefuls killed during the current campaign, according to official figures.
The victims "are not here on this day and that's very sad," Galvez told reporters while going to vote.
Local authorities said Saturday that voting was suspended in two southern municipalities because of violence.
Sheinbaum owes much of her popularity to outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a fellow leftist and mentor who has an approval rating of more than 60% but is only allowed to serve one term.
Sheinbaum has pledged to continue Lopez Obrador’s controversial "hugs not bullets" strategy of tackling crime at its roots.
Galvez, also 61, has vowed a tougher approach to cartel-related violence, declaring "hugs for criminals are over."
More than 450,000 people have been murdered and tens of thousands have gone missing since the government deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006.
The next president will also have to manage sometimes tense relations with the neighboring United States, in particular the vexing issues of cross-border drug smuggling and migration. Migration across the northern Mexican border into the U.S. is a key issue for many U.S. voters ahead of the November election between Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump.
Addressing a cheering crowd of thousands at her closing campaign rally, Sheinbaum said Mexico was going to "make history" by choosing its first woman president.
"I say to the young women, to all the women of Mexico — colleagues, friends, sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers — you are not alone," she said.
The ruling party candidate had the backing of 53% of voters as campaigning drew to a close, according to a poll average compiled by research firm Oraculus.
Galvez, an outspoken senator and businesswoman with Indigenous roots, was second with 36%. Maynez, 38, had just 11%.
Galvez has often cited her childhood story of growing up in a poor, rural town in central Mexico where she says she sold candy to help her family. While millions of Mexicans have escaped poverty in recent years, more than one-third still live below the poverty line in Latin America's second-biggest economy.
As well as voting for a new president, Mexicans will choose members of Congress, nine governors in the country’s 32 states and myriad local officials. More than 20,000 positions are being contested.
Some material in this report came from Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
