Claudia Sheinbaum emerges as winner in Mexico's presidential election

By Jorge Antonio Rocha

MEXICO CITY (AA) - The National Electoral Institute (INE), Mexico's electoral body, has unveiled the preliminary results and quick count of the 2024 election day, with the candidate for the ruling party, Claudia Sheinbaum, taking the lead in the election results and emerging as the winner of the Mexican elections.

After more than 170,000 voting booths closed at 6:00 pm, the Mexican electoral body began to compute the preliminary trends of the votes collected on Sunday.

According to the count, Sheinbaum has garnered more than 58% of the votes to become the nation's first female president, thus surpassing her opposition, Xochitl Galvez Ruiz, who accounted for between 26.6% and 28.6% of the voting, and Jorge Alvarez Maynes, with between 9.9% and 10.8%.

Furthermore, the INE is continuing to brief on the Preliminary Electoral Results Program (PREP), a tool that allows Mexicans to observe the development of the presidential election minute by minute, taking into account information reported by voting booth officials.

The preliminary results also mirror the electoral body's quick count, with Sheinbaum leading the polls with more than 59% of the votes and Xochitl Galvez Ruiz accounting for 29%. In third place, Jorge Alvarez Maynes reported under 11% of the voting.

Sheinbaum, the candidate for the ruling party, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), had led most polls since the beginning of the campaign season. She is now tipped to succeed President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

On the other hand, Galvez Ruiz cast doubt over the exit polls presented by the INE. In a series of messages on her social media, the presidential candidate warned the population about possible fraud.

"The votes are there. Let's not allow them to hide them," wrote Galvez Ruiz on her X account.

On June 5, the electoral authorities will begin counting votes by district and officially announce the president-elect later on.