America News Agency

Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory to become Mexico's first female president, taking over the project of her mentor and former leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose popularity among the poor helped his victory.

Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with 58.3 percent to 60.7 percent of the vote, according to a quick count by Mexico's electoral authority.

In a landslide victory, Claudia Sheinbaum became Mexico's first female president, taking over the project of her mentor and former leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose popularity among the poor helped his victory.

Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with 58.3 percent to 60.7 percent of the vote, according to a quick count by Mexico's electoral authority.

The ruling coalition, led by Sheinbaum's Morena party, was on track to achieve a two-thirds super-majority in both houses of Congress, allowing it to pass constitutional reforms without opposition support. Sheinbaum's landslide victory was consistent with polls conducted throughout the campaign.

According to preliminary results, the opposition candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez, conceded defeat after receiving between 26.6 per cent and 28.6 per cent of the vote. Jorge Álvarez Máynez, the candidate of the centrist Movimiento Ciudadano, came in third place with at least 9.9 percent.

Amid chants of “president, president” from her supporters, Sheinbaum said: “For the first time in the 200-year history of the republic, I will be the first woman president of Mexico. We dream of a plural, diverse and democratic Mexico. Our duty is and always will be to take care of every single Mexican without discrimination.”