Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Lopez Obrador likely winner in Mexico presidential vote
MEXICO CITY — Two of Mexico’s four presidential candidates conceded to leftist populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador shortly after polls closed nationwide on Sunday, hours before official results were in.
“For the good of Mexico, I wish him the greatest success,” said Jose Antonio Meade of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in a televised speech.
Ricardo Anaya, who was vowing a right-left coalition, conceded shortly thereafter. That left Jaime “El Bronco” Rodriguez, an independent considered a long shot for the office.
Mexicans also cast their ballots Sunday to decide more than 3,400 local, state and federal posts — the most races ever contested on a single Mexican Election Day.
About 89 million Mexicans were eligible to decide among Lopez Obrador, who promised to oust the ruling elite, and his three rivals, who warned that he would lead the country to economic disaster.
Lopez Obrador called to transform Mexico in his third bid for the presidency, vowing to overthrow the “mafia of power” he claims has looted the country. Lopez Obrador has pledged to give scholarships or paid apprenticeships to youth, and to increase support payments for the elderly.
In recent decades, Mexico has been led by technocrats and pro-American politicians. Lopez Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico City, says his role models are Mexican
independence and revolutionary leaders who stood up to more powerful foreign countries.
His candidacy worried many who fear he could set the country back with an interventionist economic policy.
“I am concerned that some candidates are making proposals that are impossible, because they’re very expensive to carry out,” said Juan Carlos Limas, 26, who lined up at a Mexico City precinct to vote for Anaya.
President Donald Trump was not a wedge issue in the race, as all the candidates have lambasted his policies against migrants and Mexico.
President Enrique Pena Nieto — who is constitutionally limited to one term — has also been widely criticized. His Institutional Revolutionary Party’s market-oriented economic changes have yet to benefit many Mexicans, though Meade still had support across much of the country.
“Meade is the best person to continue what has worked, and get rid of what hasn’t,” said Roman Acosta, a doctor from the western city of Morelia.
Casting his own vote, Pena Nieto promised to work with whoever wins on the transition.
“The president of the republic and his government will be absolutely respectful and support the authorities that are elected,” Pena Nieto told reporters.
A “rapid count” result of the presidential vote, based on a sampling of polling stations around the country, was to be released before 11 p.m. Central Daylight Time on Sunday. Full counts for all races were expected early this morning.
FEARS OF FRAUD
Hovering over the election is the specter of vote fraud, though electoral officials deny it is a possibility with the modern balloting technology and institutions now in place.
In both of Lopez Obrador’s previous two presidential losses, he alleged fraud. In his first loss — by a mere 0.56 percent to conservative Felipe Calderon in 2006 — his supporters held monthslong protests in Mexico City and he referred to himself as “the legitimate president.”
His allies were warning against any funny business.
“They shouldn’t dare commit a fraud, because if they do they will meet the devil,” said Yeidckol Polevnsky, president of Lopez Obrador’s National Regeneration Movement, called the Morena party. “We will not accept it.”
The election is also the first time Mexicans living abroad can vote for down ballot races like senators. More than 181,000 received ballots, and the 97,000 that the National Electoral Institute had gotten back by Friday morning were already double what they got in 2012.
The head of the country’s
electoral institute, Lorenzo Cordova, said voting was proceeding “peacefully, without major incidents,” and that only four of the 156,807 polling places failed to open.
On Saturday, the Democratic Revolution party said four of its members were killed in Mexico State, west of Mexico City, while trying to prevent handouts of goods by the ruling party to potential voters.
In Michoacan state, polling places in a few villages were canceled after some inhabitants said they didn’t want elections involving political parties, which they mistrust. Some ballots were stolen and burned in the town of Nahuatzen to prevent voting.
The Mexico City government reported isolated problems such as polls opening late, 17 stations that ran out of ballots and the robbery of 583 ballots that were headed
to a station in the borough of Iztapalapa.
Mexico state, which surrounds Mexico City on three sides, has traditionally been a stronghold of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, called the PRI, and it is also the home state of Pena Nieto. Such areas are seen as barometers for the shifting political mood in Mexico.
“The PRI has won here for many years, but this year it’s going to lose, because dissent is high,” Luis Valdepena Bastida, 51, said as he waited to cast his ballot.
Valdepena had voted for Lopez Obrador in the past two elections and planned to do the same Sunday. He said he was tired of daily murders and the poor education system.
“Voting is the only tool we have to ensure that this corrupt system changes,” he said. “The people are fed up.”
Others found Lopez Obrador’s promises for change unrealistic.
Keila Gonzalez Garcia, 33, said she was preparing to cast her vote for Anaya, because she felt his party would prevent a disastrous presidency.
“I’m voting for him to make sure the peje does not win,” she said, using Lopez Obrador’s nickname — a word for a type of fish that also means “clever one.” “He has a rose-tinted idea of the world, but I don’t think it’s possible. … Where is he going to get all the money for his plans?”