The president of Mexico, Andrés López Obrador, ironized this Monday regarding the opposition parties after yesterday’s state elections in which the Morena obtained four of six governorships in dispute.
“They must review their strategy, it affects them a lot. I tell them honestly: their classism, their racism, is that they despise the people, they have no love for the people,” said the president in his usual press conference morning.
“How are you going to participate (in elections) insulting, despising, ignoring the poor, denying them the right to democracy,” added López Obrador, quoted by AFP.
The ruling party Morena (left) won in four of the six Mexican states that voted for governor this Sunday, while the opposition PAN (right) and PRI (center) took the remaining two, according to the official quick count.
The National Electoral Institute (INE) released on Sunday night the voting trends that gave Morena, the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, victory in Oaxaca (south), Hidalgo (center), Tamaulipas (northeast) and Quintana Roo (east), all governed by the opposition.
The ruling party is thus strengthened towards the 2024 presidential electionsto which he will govern twenty states, fundamental in the mobilization of the vote for the federal elections, reported the AFP news agency.
Mara Lezama, licensed mayor of the Cancun resort, won in Quintana Roo with between 55.3% and 58.2% of the vote, while in Oaxaca Salomón Jara got between 58% and 61.4%, according to the quick count, which has an accuracy of 95%.
In Hidalgo, governed by the PRI since 1929, Julio Menchaca won between 60.4% and 63.2% of the votes and in Tamaulipas Américo Villareal added between 49.5 and 52.7%.
The conservative National Action Party (PAN), in opposition alliance, kept Aguasacalientes with Teresa Jiménez, who according to the quick count obtained between 51.5% and 54.9% of the votes.
The once hegemonic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) achieved victory in Durango in coalition, with Esteban Villegas, with between 52.2% and 55.2% of the vote.
Some 11.7 million voters (of a national register of almost 93 million) were called to the polls in this election in which they also voted for legislators and other local officials.
The advance of Morena would push the opposition to maintain their alliance towards the presidential election, although they are still far from reaching an agreement to present a common candidate capable of confronting the ruling party, local observers said.
The election registered minor incidents, such as the burning of the electoral post in the community of Copalita, Oaxacawhere residents protested because the government has not sent aid after the passage of Hurricane Agatha, which left nine dead.
The prosecutor’s office of that state reported on the other hand that it is investigating the death, last Friday, of Carlos Eduardo López, a doctor by profession, a member of Morena and who, according to the media, would be close to the candidate for governor, Salomón Jara.
In Durango, Morena denounced the disappearance of four of her militants on Saturday night. It is unknown if these incidents are linked to political issues.
Morena, founded in 2012 by López Obrador after breaking with the leftist PRD, has seen growth since the 2018 election, when he won his first five state governments.
In 2023 governors are elected in Coahuila (north) and the State of Mexico (center), both governed by the PRI and that they will be the last rehearsal before the federal elections of 2024, in which the president will be voted and the bicameral Congress will be renewed, in addition to the election of thousands of local positions.
Unlike the general elections of 2021, in which more than a hundred politicians, including candidates, were assassinated, this campaign passed without major shocks.
However, the issue of security has been central in states like Durango and Tamaulipas, for years in the grip of disputes between cartels, and Quintana Roo, Mexico’s tourist jewel shaken by some armed attacks in broad daylight.
