Mexican president’s party wins State of Mexico governor elections
By Juan Manuel Ramírez G.
Mexico City, Jun 4 (EFE).- Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s party won the gubernatorial elections held in the State of Mexico, the country’s most populous, on Sunday.
The National Regeneration Movement (Morena) toppled the once-powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which lost control of the state – home to 17 million inhabitants -, for the first time in 94 years.
Although the PRI remained in control of Coahuila, that victory was symbolic in the face of the defeat in the State of Mexico.
The PRI, which has been on the decline since 2015, contested the elections in both states as a coalition.
In the State of Mexico, Alejandra del Moral was the candidate for the coalition “Va por el Estado de Mexico”, composed of the PRI, The National Action Party (PAN), the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and New Alliance (NA).
Del Moral lost to Morena candidate, Delfina Gómez, who was always ahead in the polls.
Gómez, who ran for governor for the second consecutive time, led the coalition “Together We Make History,” made up of Morena, the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) and the Labor Party (PT).
Meanwhile, in Coahuila, Manolo Jiménez, the candidate of the Citizen Alliance for Security, made up of the PRI, PAN and PRD parties, won easily against Morena’s candidate, Armando Guadiana.
“It has been 100 years of corruption, but times change and the people united and won. The end of those 100 years of darkness and mistreatment has come, a new history begins in the State of Mexico,” Gómez said in a speech after the election.
In a message to the media, Del Moral said that the preliminary results did not favor her, tacitly acknowledging Gomez’s victory.
“I welcome the teacher Delfina Gómez Álvarez who will be the next governor of the State of Mexico and I wish her every success. In a democracy, in order to win, you have to know how to lose,” Del Moral added.
At a press conference, the president of the Electoral Institute of the State of Mexico (IEEM), Amalia Pulido, said that voter turnout was between 48.7 percent and 50.2 percent.
“The percentage of votes for the governorship of the State of Mexico is presented as follows: Del Moral has an upper limit of 45.2 percent and a lower limit of 43 percent, while Gomez has an upper limit of 54.2 percent and a lower limit of 52.1 percent,” Pulido said.
Since 2021, Morena has won in Baja California Sur, Campeche, Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Nayarit, San Luis, Potosí Sinaloa, Sonora, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas.
In 2022, it won in Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo and Tamaulipas and in 2023, in the State of Mexico.
The election day passed off largely peacefully with some delays in the setting up and opening of some polling booths, long lines and minor incidents.
The National Electoral Institute (INE) announced, after noon, that 100 percent of the states’ 24,493 polling stations had been set up, including 20,433 in the State of Mexico and 4,060 in Coahuila.
Almost 15 million voters were eligible to vote in the elections, 2.3 million in Coahuila and 12.5 million in the State of Mexico.
Sunday’s elections came a year before the 2024 presidential elections, in which Morena is poised to retain power. EFE
