Mexico's rulers scoop up opposition bastion ahead of presidency race (updated)

Azenta

05/06/2023 13:43

(Updates vote count, adds context in paragraph 11)
    By Dave Graham
       MEXICO CITY, June 5 (Reuters) - Mexico's ruling party
comfortably captured a major historic stronghold of the
opposition in an election on Sunday, consolidating President
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's hold on power ahead of the battle
to succeed him next year.
    Lopez Obrador's leftist National Regeneration Movement
(MORENA) won the State of Mexico gubernatorial contest by more
than 8 percentage points, according to preliminary results
published by the state's electoral institute.
    The victory adds Mexico's most populous region to the 21
other states MORENA already controls, now more than two-thirds
of the total. Another state is governed by a group allied to
MORENA, giving the party a huge power base heading into the
presidential elections due to be held on June 2, 2024.
    Sunday's result also dropped Mexico's erstwhile political
powerhouse, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), to a
new low, marking another milestone in its replacement by MORENA
as the establishment party in Latin America's no. 2 economy.
    The centrist PRI has governed the State of Mexico since
1929, the date from which it began its long domination of
Mexico. Defeated for the presidency in 2000, it bounced back in
2012 but was drubbed by Lopez Obrador six years later.
    "We defeated corruption and neglect," MORENA's triumphant
candidate Delfina Gomez told cheering supporters after the vote,
hailing the PRI's ousting. "For the first time, we'll have a
government serving those who are most vulnerable."
    Gomez, who narrowly lost the previous state election, will
be the State of Mexico's first female governor.
    With 98% of returns in from polling stations, Gomez had
52.7% of the vote. Her rival, Alejandra del Moral, a PRI
politician heading a coalition of opposition parties, had 44.3%.
    There was, however, also a warning for MORENA on Sunday.
    In a separate gubernatorial vote in the northern border
state of Coahuila, the PRI crushed MORENA after the president's
party descended into infighting, giving rise to rival
candidates. The PRI has yet to be defeated in Coahuila.
    The margin of victory in Coahuila, a state with less than
one fifth of the State of Mexico's population, meant that the
two principal opposition candidates secured almost as many votes
as MORENA did on Sunday.
    Lopez Obrador has instructed his party to stay united going
into the presidential campaign, turning on former colleagues who
have broken with MORENA.
    He has dominated Mexico's politics since taking office in
December 2018, and his popularity, holding firm around 60%, has
helped make MORENA a redoubtable electoral machine. Under
Mexican law, presidents may serve only one six-year term.
    Still, his abrasive rhetoric, which has pitted the state
against private enterprise, and fueled conflict with checks on
his power such as the judiciary, has polarized voters.
    Mexico City's mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, has had the edge in
most polling for the race to be MORENA's presidential candidate,
closely followed by Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.
    Sheinbaum, like Gomez, is closely identified with Lopez
Obrador and his policies, and some analysts say a clear MORENA
win in the state augurs well for her hopes for the presidency.
    Soon after voting ended, Sheinbaum posted a smiling picture
of herself on Twitter with Gomez, celebrating her victory.

 (Reporting by Dave Graham. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
 ((dave.graham@thomsonreuters.com; +52 55 5282 7146; Reuters
Messaging: dave.graham.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))