Mexican Elections
No matter who wins this year’s elections, Mexico will see it first female president be elected on June 2.
The general election for Mexico is scheduled to take place on June 2, 2024, with the next president-elect taking power on October 1, 2024. As the Global Pluralism Monitor: Mexico report will be launching over the next few weeks, take a sneak peak at some of the key issues discussed in this report and how they’re impacting Mexico’s 2024 general election.
Who is running?
This year’s Mexican elections are unique in that it is the first time two female candidates have been at the forefront of the presidential race, and it is likely that Mexico will have its first woman president.
- Claudia Sheinbaum, from the incumbent and left-wing party, MORENA, is the favorite to win the election. Following a successful tenure as mayor of Mexico City, she represents the Juntos Haremos Historia (Together we will make history) coalition. If elected, she would be the first woman and Jewish person to serve as president of Mexico, a Catholic-majority country.
- Xochitl Galvez is the candidate from the conservative Fuerza y Corazon por Mexico (Heart and Strength for Mexico) coalition, comprised of the Partido de Accion Nacional (National Action Party, PAN) and Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI) parties. A businesswoman with Indigenous roots, she headed the Office for the Development of Indigenous Peoples during Vicente Fox’s tenure and was most recently a Senator for the republic.
What we are watching
Some of the main issues contested in this election include security, education, healthcare; gender-based violence, the economy, the environment and mobility. The upcoming Global Pluralism Monitor: Mexico report, which will be launched in the coming weeks, underscores most, if not all of these issues, focusing on Indigenous peoples, Afro-Mexicans and migrants experience issues of security and gender-based violence.
Supporters of Claudia Sheinbaum are expecting to see a continuation of Lopez Obrador’s left-wing and populist policies, but also of some of the policies she pioneered as mayor of Mexico City. Some of the policies she is proposing include free school tuition for pre-school, primary and secondary school students; increasing minimum wages; prevention of gender-based violence with a focus on reporting cases of GBV as well as investigating every homicide of a woman as a femicide; and a broader proposal on discouraging youth from joining organized crime.
Although Sheinbaum promoted gender-inclusive policies as mayor of Mexico City, her platform currently does not have any solid policies on LGBTQ+ communities or on abortion rights, two key issues in Mexico. When it comes to migration, language has been focused on international cooperation to address the root causes for migration in other Central American countries as well as the provision of jobs for migrants.
Xochitl Galvez is known for her humble Indigenous roots and her commitment to supporting Indigenous communities, particularly Indigenous artisan women. Despite being backed by a conservative party, she has voted in favour of criminalizing conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ folks in the past. Some of the policies that Galvez is proposing include increasing teachers’ salaries and having parents contribute to the development of new school textbooks; fostering alliances with the private sector, especially small and medium enterprises; support for mothers of victims of femicides and reparations for their family members, including scholarships for children of victims of femicides.
Despite these policies, Galvez is seen by many to represent the two political parties that many Mexicans see as responsible for the current corruption crisis in the government. These parties are the PRI, which held power democratically for 71 years, and the PAN, a conservative party historically linked to the Catholic church.
What this means for pluralism
This year’s Mexican elections are to be the largest elections in the nation’s history, as citizens will also be voting for posts to be filled at the municipal, state and federal levels. Like with any other Mexican elections, clientelism is expected to be an issue that may impact the outcome of the election, as it has become one of the most important forms of voter mobilization.
The Global Pluralism Monitor: Mexico report, set to be published in the coming weeks, discusses how clientelist culture persists across all political parties and operates under different guises. Clientelism refers to the exchange of goods, services or money for votes or political support. The Monitor report notes how the PRI party was known to co-opt local politicians and leaders from disadvantaged social classes to work for the benefit of the party. While significant measures have been put in place to prevent clientelist tactics, it is always a hot topic during election cycles. In this cycle, there are reports of public servants who have suggested to lower-income people that if Galvez is elected, a myriad of welfare assistance programs will come to an end. This is highly concerning as nearly 3.8 million individuals benefit from these programs and may see their decision for who to vote impacted by this information.
There are significant concerns that the election of Sheinbaum could signify a status quo in terms of the During López Obrador’s tenure, the military became an extension of the civil service and took on roles in infrastructure, immigration, airports, and in the private sector. The militarization of the COVID-19 response in the Mexico City under Sheinbaum’s leadership could also be indicative of this. The forthcoming Global Pluralism Monitor: Mexico report discusses the impact of the growth of militarization in the country, particularly across the border, in Indigenous territories and in the public security or police forces. This rising militarization has also resulted in increasing violence against Indigenous and Afro-Mexican activists. In contrast, Galvez’s policies aim to gradually demilitarize the civil service, having the military focus instead on the narcotraffic crisis in the country
Both candidates present multiple opportunities for policies that will foster and bolster pluralism in Mexico. Given the historical records of MORENA, PRI and PAN, voters appear more confident in MORENA to support more pluralistic policies overall, even despite the proposals pioneered by Galvez.