Mexico City,<\/p>\n
Anti-establishment leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador swept to victory in Mexico\u2019s presidential election on Monday, in a political sea change driven by voters\u2019 anger over endemic corruption and brutal violence.<\/p>\n
According to exit polls, the sharp-tongued, silver-haired politician known as \u201cAMLO\u201d won by a large margin over his two main rivals, who both conceded defeat shortly after the polls closed\u2014laying to rest concerns that a deeply divided country could face prolonged uncertainty over the winner.<\/p>\n
Thousands of ecstatic supporters flooded central Mexico City\u2019s Zocalo square and Alameda park, celebrating to the sounds of mariachi music as Lopez Obrador slowly made his way there from his campaign headquarters in a motorcade, swarmed by huge crowds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government was failing. We needed a real change,\u201d said one elated supporter, Jose Gutierrez, 44.<\/p>\n
Runner-up Ricardo Anaya of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and third-place candidate Jose Antonio Meade of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) both congratulated Lopez Obrador and wished him success.<\/p>\n
It is a major shift in Mexican politics: the PRI and PAN have governed for nearly a century, and Lopez Obrador will be the country\u2019s first leftist president in recent history when he takes office on December 1.<\/p>\n
Three polling firms gave the former Mexico City mayor the win. Newspaper El Financiero\u2019s exit poll gave him 49 percent of the vote to 27 percent for Anaya and 18 percent for Meade.<\/p>\n
Polling firms Mitofsky and the Strategic Communications Cabinet announced broadly similar results.<\/p>\n
Lopez Obrador, 64, successfully tapped voters\u2019 anger over a seemingly never-ending series of corruption scandals and horrific violence that left a record 25,000 murders last year\u2014an orgy of bloodshed fueled by the country\u2019s powerful drug cartels.<\/p>\n
Casting his ballot early Sunday at his polling station in Mexico City\u2019s Tlalpan district, he called the elections \u201chistoric.\u201d \u201cWe represent the possibility of real change,\u201d he told hundreds of journalists crowded at the entrance, promising a \u201cpeaceful transformation\u201d of the country.<\/p>\n
Lopez Obrador\u2019s coalition\u2014led by the Morena party he launched in 2014 \u2014 appeared to be on track for a strong showing in state and congressional races as well, winning six of the day\u2019s nine governor\u2019s races, according to exit polls.<\/p>\n
That included Mexico City, where a woman was elected for the first time ever, the scientist and environmentalist Claudia Sheinbaum.<\/p>\n
Two other states were too close to call, according to Mitofsky.<\/p>\n
Lopez Obrador\u2019s coalition will have a majority in the lower house, and possibly in the Senate as well, according to the firm\u2019s exit polls\u2014a coup for a party contesting its first national elections.<\/p>\n
After a campaign of lofty but vague promises, the new president will now face a big challenge to deliver, said political analyst Jose Antonio Crespo.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll have Congress\u2019s support and a great deal of legitimacy, but things don\u2019t change magically,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n
In a country awash in violence, the campaign has been the most blood-stained in Mexican history: 145 politicians have been murdered since September, according to consulting firm Etellekt.<\/p>\n
Three political party members were shot dead on election day, according to local officials: a Workers\u2019 Party (PT) member in the western state of Michoacan, and two members of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the central state of Puebla.<\/p>\n
Most of the murders have been of local politicians, the most frequent targets for drug cartels seeking corrupt officials they can strike alliances with.<\/p>\n
But Mexicans are deeply divided over Lopez Obrador, who was making his third presidential bid.<\/p>\n
He has clashed with Mexico\u2019s business community, with some critics warning he would pursue Venezuela-style socialist policies that could wreck Latin America\u2019s second-largest economy.<\/p>\n
Seeking to soothe, he has recruited a team of market-friendly advisers and backpedaled on his most controversial proposals, including reversing outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto\u2019s landmark energy reform, which privatized the oil sector.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s Business Coordinating Council, one of its largest business groups, appeared ready to call a truce.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will work with the president-elect\u2019s team to build an agenda for stability, trust and development,\u201d its director, Juan Pablo Castanon, told a press conference.<\/p>\n
The Mexican peso was stable on international currency markets.<\/p>\n
Lopez Obrador will face a laundry list of challenges, including a lackluster economy and a thorny relationship with the United States under President Donald Trump, whose anti-trade, anti-immigration policies have turned diplomacy with Mexico\u2019s key trading partner into a minefield.<\/p>\n
\u201cAMLO\u201d has vowed to put Trump \u201cin his place.\u201d But the US president appeared ready to start off on the right foot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mexico City, Anti-establishment leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador swept to victory in Mexico\u2019s presidential election on Monday, in a political sea change driven by voters\u2019 anger over endemic corruption and brutal violence. According to exit polls, the sharp-tongued, silver-haired politician known as \u201cAMLO\u201d won by a large margin over his two main rivals, who both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35860,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35858\/revisions\/35860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}