Mexico state elections poised to carry contemporary features to president’s celebration By Reuters

By Dave Graham

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexicans began casting votes in six state elections on Sunday which can be prone to enhance President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s celebration, in one of many final main assessments of his electoral clout earlier than the political focus shifts to the race to succeed him.

Lopez Obrador’s leftist Nationwide Regeneration Motion (MORENA) and its allies are tipped to win a lot of the governorships up for grabs, tightening the celebration’s grip on the political panorama in opposition to a fractured opposition.

Collectively accounting for about one-tenth of Mexico’s 126 million inhabitants, Tamaulipas and Durango in Northern Mexico, Aguascalientes and Hidalgo within the heart, and Oaxaca and Quintana Roo within the south and east elect new governors.

All are at the moment ruled by the opposition. Opinion polls counsel that solely Aguascalientes and Durango are prone to stay within the fingers of opposition events, which aren’t operating on a totally united ticket in opposition to MORENA in any state.

Julio Ruiz, a 52-year-old trainer, wished MORENA to extend its energy. “If we’re all with the president, we’ll fare higher,” he mentioned whereas on the way in which to solid his vote within the heart of Oaxaca Metropolis.

Gloria Reyes, a 56-year-old who washes dishes for a dwelling, walked previous a polling station in Santa Maria Atzompa, close to Oaxaca Metropolis, and stopped to beseech the Immaculate Virgin of Juquila to assist MORENA win.

Javier Oliva, a political scientist on the Nationwide Autonomous College of Mexico (UNAM), mentioned if MORENA wins a majority of the states, it ought to assist consolidate the president’s affect over the celebration.

“It will give Lopez Obrador a great deal of energy to determine who would be the candidate in 2024,” Oliva mentioned.

Polls have constantly proven Lopez Obrador is extra common than MORENA, the celebration that was a car for his presidential marketing campaign in 2018, when he gained by a landslide.

Amid the pandemic, he has fallen wanting marketing campaign pledges to ramp up financial development and considerably cut back gang-fueled violence, however his rollout of social welfare applications has buttressed his recognition.

Nonetheless, the elections come as a every day monitoring ballot printed by pollster Consulta Mitofsky confirmed assist for Lopez Obrador had slipped from over 62% on the finish of April to 54% on Friday.

“I can not assist noticing errors made at federal stage being handed on to the states,” mentioned Guadalupe Mejia, a 79-year-old voter in Cancun, Quintana Roo.

Mejia mentioned safety and schooling have been her foremost issues, and that she was not voting for MORENA.

Below Mexican regulation, presidents can serve solely a single six-year time period. Lopez Obrador’s successor is scheduled to be elected in June 2024. Mexico Metropolis Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and Overseas Minister Marcelo Ebrard are among the many favorites for the job.

Political analysts are inclined to view Sheinbaum as extra ideologically aligned with Lopez Obrador’s base, and Ebrard as extra reasonable, with higher enchantment to middle-class voters.

Victory in 4 of the six states would give MORENA management of 20 of Mexico’s 32 regional governments. Administrations allied with MORENA additionally govern two different states.