Claudia Sheinbaum has won a historic election in a landslide and will become Mexico’s first female president.
Preliminary results from Mexico’s Electoral body, the National Electoral Institute (INE) showed the 61-year-old former mayor of Mexico City winning between 58% and 60% of the vote in Sunday’s election, giving her a near 30 percentage points over her main rival, businesswoman Xóchitl Gálvez.
Xóchitl Gálvez has conceded defeat.
Ms Sheinbaum will replace her mentor, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on October 1 and has promised to continue to build on the progress made by Obrador.
In her victory speech, she told voters: “I won’t fail you.”
Before running for president, Ms Sheinbaum occupied one of the most influential positions in the country – mayor of Mexico City, and many believe it created a path to the presidency for her.
The president-elect had an illustrious career as a scientist before delving into politics.
Both of her parents were scientists and Ms Sheinbaum studied physics before going on to earn a doctorate in energy engineering. She spent years studying Mexican energy consumption patterns in California and became an expert on climate change.
She became Secretary of the Environment for Mexico City when Mr 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.
Although the two front-runners were women who were widely celebrated, the campaign was marred by violent attacks. The government says more than 20 were killed across Mexico, although other surveys put the total higher.
Mr López Obrador, elected in 2018, was constitutionally barred from running for a second term and threw his weight behind Ms Sheinbaum instead.
Having the backing of the popular president, who has an approval rate of close to 60%, gave Ms Sheinbaum’s campaign a huge boost.
