Mexico kicks off election campaign
MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s presidential candidates started their campaigns on Friday for elections on June 2, with the ruling party candidate leading in a race poised to crown a woman to lead Latin America’s second-largest nation for the first time.
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, running under a coalition led by current President Andre Manuel Lopez Obrador’s leftist MORENA party, holds a comfortable 20 percentage point lead over former Senator Xochitl Galvez, who represents the opposition coalition.
With the backing of Mr Lopez Obrador, who has consistently polled support of around 60 per cent or more, Ms Sheinbaum is favoured in the race.
The 61-year-old scientist, a close ally of Mr Lopez Obrador, has vowed to carry on with the policies that have made him popular, such as combining strong social welfare programs with fiscal discipline that has helped boost the Mexican peso.
“On June 2, the people of Mexico will make a decision. There are only two paths: that the transformation continues or that corruption returns,” Ms Sheinbaum told thousands of supporters in the capital’s famous Zocalo plaza.
Ms Sheinbaum said she would seek to cash in on the so-called nearshoring trend of multinational firms relocating supply chains closer to their final destination.
She also promised to tackle rife insecurity, which despite improving by some metrics under the current administration, still puts Mexico among the most violent countries in the Americas.
Beyond the presidency, Mexican voters will also cast their ballots on June 2 for lawmakers in both chambers of Congress, eight governorships, as well as the Mexico City mayoral post and thousands of other local officials.