A quick-count sampling of votes for governor of Mexico’s most populous state suggested a victory late Sunday for the candidate from the governing party of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which would end nearly a century of uninterrupted rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Preliminary results indicated Delfina Gomez of the Morena party was likely to win between 52.1 per cent and 54.2 per cent of the ballots in the State of Mexico, compared with 43 per cent to 45.2 per cent for Alejandra del Moral, representing the opposition coalition, according to the National Electoral Institute.
The forecast was based on representative sampling of voting stations with at least 95 per cent certainty. The outcome will not be final until all ballots were counted. Participation was between 48.7 and 50.2 per cent of eligible state voters.
Del Moral conceded shortly after the preliminary forecast was announced. “In democracy to be able to win, you have to know how to lose and I am a democrat,” she said, adding she had total respect for the electoral authorities.
Gomez, a schoolteacher making her second bid for the post, held a healthy lead in recent polling over del Moral. The former mayor representing the PRI struggled to attract a fed-up electorate bent on change. Gomez, who will become the state’s first female governor, thanked del Moral Sunday night for conceding quickly. “Respect for democracy is an indispensable condition for building the State of Mexico for the good of all,” she wrote on Twitter.The State of Mexico hugs Mexico City on three sides, encompassing urban sprawl and rural ranches, as well as stunning inequality, violence and corruption.
For decades it has been the heart of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.But voters appeared ready to finally oust the PRI in favour of Lopez Obrador’s Morena party in a race closely watched as a preview of the 2024 presidential election.