By Dave Graham
MEXICO CITY (Portal) – Mexico’s ruling party on Wednesday named former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum as its candidate for next year’s presidential election. That puts her in pole position to win the June 2 election and become the country’s first female president.
Sheinbaum, 61, is a close ally of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and was considered a strong favorite to win the nationwide poll by the left-wing National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) to choose its candidate.
In a large hall at the World Trade Center, a towering building in an affluent area of Mexico City, party leaders said Sheinbaum had beaten five other candidates in a poll organized by the party.
Sheinbaum won each of the five polls conducted to decide the outcome by an average of about two-fifths of the vote, the party said.
However, the trial has been rocked by controversy, with one of the leading contenders already denouncing the trial on Wednesday and saying it needs to be renewed.
Hours before the winner was announced, Sheinbaum’s closest rival, former foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard, said the vote had been marred by irregularities.
Ebrard was not present when Sheinbaum was declared the winner and previously told a Mexican radio station that he and his team had been banned from the event. He said he would decide his next step on Monday.
His campaign had been pointing out for weeks that there were problems selecting the MORENA candidate in the statewide voter survey, and the complaints have mounted in recent days.
But party leaders quickly defended the process. Alfonso Durazo, President of the MORENA National Board, supported the selection survey in a statement signed by all governors of MORENA State, including himself.
Sheinbaum’s election likely sets the stage for Mexico to elect its first woman president.
The main opposition alliance last week chose as its presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez, a charismatic and unconventional senator of indigenous origin who grew up from a poor background to become a successful entrepreneur.
A resource nationalist, Lopez Obrador has centered the state in the economy, prioritized public companies over foreign investors, expanded the army’s responsibilities and increased social spending to curb rampant inequality.
(Reporting by Dave Graham and Adriana Barrera, Editing by Timothy Gardner, Cassandra Garrison and Josie Kao)