Claudia Sheinbaum elected Mexico’s first female president, preliminary results show

Mexico has elected its first female president, with preliminary results showing Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and Mexico City’s former mayor, is on track to win the country’s largest election in history.

Sheinbaum has won between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to what is known as Quick Count, an exercise that the National Electoral Institute (INE) carries out based on a statistical sample of ballots from polling stations.

The 61-year-old rode the wave of popularity of her longtime political ally, the outgoing leftist Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and their Morena party.

Sheinbaum is not only set to be Mexico’s first female president, but also the country’s first Jewish leader, although she rarely speaks publicly about her personal background and has governed as a secular leftist.