Mexicans vote in momentous national poll
MEXICANS yesterday voted to choose their new president in the most significant elections in a generation.
With corruption soaring and violence at its highest level in modern history, the new president will also have to deal with Donald Trump, the US president, and his attacks on Mexico and the Nafta trade deal.
The outgoing leader, Enrique Peña Nieto, has had the lowest poll ratings since records began, and been dogged by a series of corruption scandals. Mexico is united in a desire for change, but divided on how to achieve it.
Leading the polls is Andrés Manuel López Obrador, 64, a veteran left-wing populist making his third attempt at the presidency, and promising to wipe out corruption, support the poor and work with Mr Trump “with dignity”.
He is trailed by Ricardo Anaya, a 39-year-old lawyer from the PAN – a party whose leader in the senate announced on the eve of the vote that Mr Anaya was “a danger to Mexico”, and was promptly expelled. Representing the ruling PRI is experienced politician José Antonio Meade, 49, who said after voting in Mexico City yesterday that he was going to mass to “pray for Mexico”.
More than 100 candidates and officials have been murdered in the run-up to the elections, and on the eve of the vote, an Acapulco drug cartel strung a message from a bridge warning that if anyone meddled with the electoral process, “we will come for you”.