Women have been chosen as candidates for both the governing Morena party and the opposition coalition. Morena announced on Wednesday that their nominee is former Mexico City mayor and climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum. She will now face off against Senator Xóchitl Gálvez, a businesswoman elected to office in 2018.
“In a matter of months Gálvez has risen to become the candidate of a broad opposition coalition that includes the PAN, PRI and PRD, the country’s three oldest mainstream parties,” the Guardian reports. “Both Sheinbaum and Gálvez were chosen through a series of polls intended to show greater transparency and public participation than in the past, when presidents had the habit of handpicking their successors. However, neither process went smoothly.”
Morena’s runner-up, Marcelo Ebrard, has denounced the process and accused the party of favoritism with their choice of Sheinbaum.
Ebrard has claimed that his campaign has found anomalies in 14 percent of ballots cast in the national poll.
Despite Gálvez’ popularity, Sheinbaum is the current favorite to win the election.
“She will have López Obrador’s support, but building her own narrative, forging her own image – that’s her first challenge,” Carlos Ramírez, a political analyst, told The Guardian. “She needs him, and he is popular. Why break with that? But she has to find a middle way.”
Current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is not eligible to run again.
Poster Comment:
1) Both parents were Jewish immigrants
2) She worked for IPCC on climate change.
3) First mayor to attend gay pride parade.
4) In 2021, Sheinbaum removed a Christopher Columbus statue in Mexico city