Mexico state elections poised to bring new benefits to president’s party According to Reuters
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during the US virtual global climate summit, at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, April 22, 2021. REUTERS/Henry Romero/ / File Photo
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico holds six state elections on Sunday that are likely to boost President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s party in one of the last major tests of his electoral influence before as the political focus shifted to the race to succeed him.
Lopez Obrador’s left-wing National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) and its allies are expected to win most of the governorships for it, tightening the party’s control of the anti-government political landscape. the opposition cracked.
Together making up about a tenth of Mexico’s population of 126 million, Tamaulipas and Durango in northern Mexico, Aguascalientes and Hidalgo in the center, and Oaxaca and Quintana Roo in the south and east elect new governors.
All are currently managed by the opposition. Opinion polls show that only Aguascalientes and Durango are likely to be in the hands of opposition parties who are not running on the ticket of outright solidarity against MORENA in any given state.
Javier Oliva, a political scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said if MORENA won a majority of the states, it would help strengthen the president’s influence over the party.
“It will give Lopez Obrador a lot of power to decide who will be the candidate in 2024,” Oliva said.
Polls have consistently shown Lopez Obrador to be preferred over MORENA, the party that was the vehicle for his presidential campaign in 2018, when he won a landslide battle.
Amid the pandemic, he has fallen short of his campaign pledge to boost economic growth and dramatically reduce gang violence, but the rollout of social welfare programs has boosted his campaign. boost his popularity.
However, the elections come as a daily poll released by pollster Consulta Mitofsky shows that support for Lopez Obrador has dropped from more than 62% at the end of April. down to 54% on Friday.
Under Mexican law, presidents can only serve a single six-year term. Lopez Obrador’s successor is expected to be elected in June 2024. Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard are the favorites for the job.
Political analysts tend to see Sheinbaum as more ideologically aligned with Lopez Obrador’s establishment, and Ebrard as more moderate, with greater appeal to middle-class voters.
Victory in four of the six states would give MORENA control of 20 of Mexico’s 32 regional governments. Governments allied with MORENA also govern two other states.
