The ruling Morena party continues to profit from the good approval ratings of its founder, mentor and current president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). According to the Preliminary Electoral Results Program (PREP), after the state elections held yesterday, Morena has obtained victory in Oaxaca, Tamaulipas, Hidalgo and Quintana Roo, while her opposition rivals retain Durango and Aguascalientes. Although participation has been low, around 50%, these results confirm that AMLO’s project, baptized as the ‘Fourth Transformation’, continues to be the preferred option for Mexican society.
“Let me tell you that it is a historic day for ‘obradorism’, people continue to confirm with their vote that it is an honor to be with Obrador,” assured Mario Delgado, president of Morena, after learning of the first results. Without waiting for the electoral authority to offer consolidated figures, the pro-government leader has announced that his party had won five of the six governorships that were at stake. Finally, the scrutiny has confirmed that Durango was for his rivals, something that Delgado has justified in that the opposition “carried out vote-buying operations, trying to inhibit citizen participation” and has announced that “we are going to denounce them.”
Election day has passed peacefully although, as usual, there have been some incidents. In Oaxaca, it has not been possible to open 21 polling stations due to the floods and roadblocks caused by the passage of Hurricane Agatha, which left 11 dead in the area last week. In Tamaulipas, a group of armed men has stolen two ballot boxes. In Durango, the Police have arrested 5 people with large amounts of money allegedly destined to ‘buy votes’ and there are 4 missing Morena volunteers.
There have also been attacks against the headquarters of political parties, the burning of votes and vehicles with partisan advertising, shots fired next to a polling station in Cancún, and the Twitter account of the National Electoral Institute has been blocked for several hours, something that, according to explained its advisers, it has not been the result of a hack and has not interrupted the counting of votes. At the level of results, Morena’s victory in Hidalgo, with 62% of the votes, has been especially painful for the opposition, who has held territorial power in this square for 93 years. The ruling party has also obtained comfortable victories in the tourist mecca of Quintana Roo, with 57%, and in the impoverished and rural state of Oaxaca, with 60%.
“They were very far from their much-announced ‘six out of six’, it is a defeat for Morena and for AMLO,” said Marko Cortés, president of the National Action Party (PAN), after knowing the first results of the elections. The conservative leader has also positively valued the performance of the opposition coalition ‘Va por México’, made up of his formation, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the progressive Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), “it was clear that the coalition works , that “there is a shot” towards the 2024 presidential elections, that we are going to correct Mexico’s course and that the true opposition must join.”
Waiting to know the assessment of the results made this Monday by President AMLO, during his usual morning press conference, the main local media coincide in granting Morena the role of “great winner” of the elections. In June 2023, Mexicans will return to the polls to renew the governorships of Coahuila and the State of Mexico, in what will be the last electoral test before the 2024 presidential elections. Until then, the ruling party hopes to continue reaping good results to pay the best possible ground for AMLO’s successor, who will have to maintain the momentum if he wants to consolidate Mexico’s ambitious ‘Fourth Transformation’.
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