CONGRATULATIONS MEXICO on not letting corruption and political violence keep you from carrying on your democratic traditions. Bravo to the millions who worked for and voted for change. God speed to your President-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the others elected with him as they take on the political, institutional corruption that has robbed so much from the Mexican people. God protect President-elect Obrador and his government and allies as they take on the violence and corruption of the drug / political cartels. With the support of the Mexican people this new administration, if it remains true to the campaign promises made, has the opportunity to become, over time, the economic and political leader of Latin America. Viva Mexico! From HuffPost and NPR.....
Mexico Elects Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador In Landslide
He has promised to rein in corruption and fight rampant poverty in the country.
Mexico elected leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador in a landslide victory on Sunday, according to exit polls showing the former mayor with double-digit leads over his competitors.
López Obrador, 64, mounted his third bid for the presidency with promises to rein in widespread corruption and fight poverty within the country. A former mayor of Mexico City, he will replace current President Enrique Peña Nieto and has promised to upend traditional party politics.
He would be the first leftist president in decades, according to Reuters.
López Obrador’s two main opponents, Jose Antonio Meade, the ruling party candidate, and center-right candidate Ricardo Anaya conceded the election late Sunday.
“For the good of Mexico, I wish him the very best of success,” Meade said in his concession speech.
López Obrador, also known as AMLO, has won mass appeal among the populace with sweeping promises to sell the presidential plane, cut his salary if elected and bolster the wages of the civil servants. He’s also pledged to save some $20 billion a year by combatting corruption, money that would be diverted to social programs, although it’s unclear where that figure comes from, according to The New York Times.
His victory represents a resounding defeat for Peña Nieto’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which has lost popularity in recent years amid turmoil with President Donald Trump. All of the candidates had lambasted the American leader, but López Obrador has stressed the need to work with the United States, saying that the countries would “have to come to an agreement.”
“We are going to maintain a good relationship,” López Obrador told the Times last month. “Or rather, we will aim to have a good bilateral relationship because it is indispensable.”
Trump congratulated López Obrador on Twitter on Sunday evening, saying he looked “very much forward to working with him.”
His critics, however, have warned that López Obrador could escalate a trade war with the U.S., according to The Washington Post. Others are concerned that some hazy campaign pledges will be difficult to carry out.
“I am concerned that some candidates are making proposals that are impossible, because they’re very expensive,” one voter told The Associated Press before the election.
Sunday’s elections were the largest ever in Mexico with more than 3,200 elected positions up for grabs, including 628 members of the National Congress. Voters also cast ballots for some 1,500 mayoral posts around the country.
The electoral season has been one of the most violent in recent history as criminal groups have moved to assassinate more than 130 candidates and political operatives since last fall, the Times reports. Some parties have struggled to find people willing to run in local elections, and hundreds of candidates had withdrawn their names in fear.
An official “quick count” of the election results is expected around midnight on Monday morning, according to Reuters.
Leftist Manuel López Obrador Wins Mexican Presidency In Landslide
July 2, 20181:04 AM ET
Updated at 4 a.m. ET
Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador — who campaigned partly on a platform of standing up to President Trump — will become Mexico's next president after easily outpacing his two main rivals.
With about a third of the votes counted, López Obrador was polling about 53 percent to 24 percent for conservative candidate Ricardo Anaya and 15 percent for Jose Antonio Meade of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary (PRI) party.
"The tendency favors Andres Manuel López Obrador," Anaya told his supporters minutes after Meade also conceded. "I recognize his triumph."
Pre-election polls had shown López Obrador, a 64-year-old former mayor of Mexico City, as a heavy favorite and exit polls indicated the trend in the early count was almost certain to hold.
López Obrador's calls for transforming Mexico by ousting the "mafia of power" and his advocacy for the poor held strong appeal. In addition, his nationalistic appeals, including a promise to defend Mexicans against U.S. bullying also helped win votes.
The candidate, who goes by the nickname AMLO, even published a book, Oye, Trump("Listen Up, Trump") aimed squarely at the U.S. president. Even so, as Reuters notes, "López Obrador's nationalism, stubborn nature and put-downs of rivals have drawn comparisons" to Trump.
Trump congratulated the apparent victor in a tweet Sunday night, saying he looked forward to working with him.
As NPR's Carrie Kahn notes, López Obrador "says he's going to cut the perks and corruption from the top and give that money and savings to the bottom — raising salaries, pensions for the elderly, scholarships for the young."
The New York Times writes that the outcome of Sunday's election "represents a clear rejection of the status quo in the nation, which for the last quarter century has been defined by a centrist vision and an embrace of globalization that many Mexicans feel has not served them."
That banner for that vision has been carried by Mexico's long dominant PRI party and its outgoing president, Enrique Peña Nieto.
Exit polls forecast gubernatorial wins for allies of Obrador's Morena party in four of the eight state races being contested, as well as the capital, Mexico City, according to The Associated Press.
Mexico's central state of Guanajuato was expected to go to the conservative National Action Party, the AP says.
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