As the presidential election to be held in Mexico on the 2nd approaches, expectations are rising for the birth of the first female president.
Mexico's National Election Commission (INE) announced on the 30th (local time) that in this election, 100 million voters will elect 20,708 elected officials, including the president with a six-year term, senators and representatives, governors, district mayors, and local councilors. . The presidential election of most interest is the progressive ruling coalition's candidate Claudia Sheinbaum (61, National Reconstruction Movement), the conservative opposition coalition's candidate compete against each other
The situation is such that Candidate Sheinbaum is comfortably ahead, while Candidate Galvez and Alvarez are trailing from a distance. Local opinion polls at the end of the election show that candidate Sheinbaum is receiving support in the mid-50% range, candidate Galvez is in the mid-30% range, and candidate Alvarez is only 12-10%.
Coincidentally, the two leading candidates are both female politicians. Accordingly, it is predicted that there is a high possibility that a female candidate will be elected in this presidential election for the first time in Mexican constitutional history.
Mexico is a country where women are very active in politics. Mexico introduced a quota system that mandated the nomination of 30% of female candidates in the 2003 congressional elections, and then steadily increased the ratio to 40% in 2009 and 50% in 2015. According to the International Parliamentary Union (IPU), there are currently 250 female Mexican lawmakers in the House of Representatives, half of the total 500, and 64 out of 127 in the Senate, or 50.4%. In a 2020 speech, former Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Ángel Gurría, who is from Mexico, said, “Mexico is a leader in promoting policies to increase women’s participation in public office,” and in 2017, the proportion of women in parliament was already the highest in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He boasted that he was above average. However, there has yet to be a female president.
Shane Baum, the most likely candidate to win her election, is a former environmental expert. Her grandparents are of Jewish descent, having immigrated from Eastern Europe. In 2000, she became the capital city's Minister of Environment, and in 2015, she served as Mexico City's Minister of Environment. In 2018, she gained significant attention when she was elected as Mexico City's first female mayor. She is accepted as the successor to current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Candidate Galvez, who is following her, is a former engineer who majored in computer engineering. She founded and ran a Haitian (IT) security company. She entered politics in 2000 when she was appointed Commissioner for Indigenous Peoples Development by then-President Vicente Fox. In 2015, she served as mayor of Mexico City's Miguel District, and in 2018, she was elected to the Senate.