Mexico’s ruling party declares Sheinbaum winner of presidential vote

By Kylie Madry and Valentine Hilaire

MEXICO CITY, June 2 – Media outlets and the ruling party declared Claudia Sheinbaum the winner of Mexico’s presidential election after polls closed on Sunday, putting her on course to be the country’s first woman president.

Television outlet NMAS and newspaper El Financiero both said their polls showed Sheinbaum winning, though they did not give figures.

The head of the ruling MORENA party Mario Delgado told supporters in Mexico City that Sheinbaum had won by a “very large” margin.

Mexico’s largest-ever elections have also been the most violent in modern history, with the killing of 38 candidates. The deadly violence has stoked concerns about the threat of warring drug cartels to democracy. On Sunday, two people were killed at polling stations in Puebla state.

Sheinbaum, who has convincingly led in opinion polls over her main competitor Xochitl Galvez, will be tasked with confronting organized crime violence. More people have been killed during the mandate of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador than during any other administration in Mexico’s modern history, although the homicide rate has come down over his term.

A victory for Sheinbaum would represent a major step for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture. The winner is set to begin a six-year term on Oct. 1.

Who is Claudia Sheinbaum?

Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo was born in Mexico City on 24 June 1962; She is the second daughter of a family of scientists, her father the chemist Carlos Sheinbaum Yoselevitz and her mother the biologist Annie Pardo Cemo; both were involved in the Mexican student movement in 1968.

In 1995, Sheinbaum moved in California for four years on a UNAM scholarship to pursue a doctorate at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. That same year she joined the academic staff of the Engineering Institute of the institution. Other qualifications and jobs include:

• graduate of the Advanced Studies Program in Sustainable Development and Environment.
• graduated from the Advanced Studies Program in Sustainable Development at El Colegio de México.
• a member of the National System of Researchers.
• a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences.
• she was an advisor to the National Commission for Energy Saving.
• she was an advisor to the Economic Studies Management of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
• she was part of the UN Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Climate Change in 2007
• Early life
• According to Wikipedia Sheinbaum Pardo was born to a secular Jewish family in Mexico City Her paternal Ashkenazi grandparents emigrated from Lithuania to Mexico City in the 1920s, while her maternal Sephardic grandparents emigrated there from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in the early 1940s to escape the Holocaust. She celebrated all the Jewish holidays at her grandparents’ homes.

Reuters/ News Agencies