MEXICO CITY: Claudia Sheinbaum, a scientist with a PhD in physics, has been elected by a huge margin as Mexico’s first female president.
Sheinbaum, 61, will succeed her mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who first included her in the government in 2000 and with whom she broke away from the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD) in 2014 to form Morena that is also headed for super majorities in both houses of the Congress.
“For the first time in the 200 years of the republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum told supporters, according to the Mexican media.
A successful politician in her own right, she was the Mayor of Mexico City during Obrador’s tenure as the President. The final vote in Sheinbaum’s favour is expected to be 60.7 per cent, making it the highest vote percentage by a Presidential candidate in Mexico’s democratic history.
Mexican analysts felt a glass ceiling was broken because of Mexico’s pervasive macho culture and the majority Roman Catholic population which tends to circumscribe the role of women in public life in those parts.
They noted that she was the first woman to win a general election in the entire North America the US, Mexico or Canada.
The elections were the most violent with 38 candidates murdered amid an expansion of organised crime cartels during Obrador’s term as the President during which 1.85 lakh people suffered violent deaths.