Elections in Mexico: polls close and counting begins

The polls for Mexico's general elections closed at 9pm this Sunday (2). The first results of the presidential elections will be released between 1 am and 2 am, Brasília time, said Uuc-Kib Espadas, advisor to the National Electoral Institute (INE).

These initial results will be part of the so-called rapid count “a procedure to provide citizens with early and accurate information about the results of the election”, explained Espadas.

Quick counting is a statistical method that predicts voting trends based on a random sample of ballot boxes, according to the electoral body.

In addition to the position of president, around 20,000 positions are up for grabs — eight governor positions, mayor of Mexico City, the country's capital, and vacancies in both Houses of Congress.

Almost 100 million Mexicans were eligible to vote in these elections.

Mexico must have first female president

Claudia Sheinbaum, former mayor of Mexico City and from the same party as the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is leading the polls.

Behind them is Senator Xochitl Galvez, who represents an opposition coalition made up of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) — the right-wing PAN and the left-wing PRD party.

Given this, the country must have the first female president in history.

Violence

Voting day for the Mexican general elections was marked by violence and delays. Voting was suspended at an electoral college in Comeyoapan, in the state of Puebla, after one person was killed during a shootout. Another death was confirmed by the state attorney general in the city of Tlapanalapan, in the center-west of the country.

In the state of Jalisco, which is home to the third largest electoral college in Mexico, five ballot boxes were not installed due to a lack of security. The state is holding elections for governor, but authorities reported that there were not sufficient conditions to protect the safety of voters in the city of Jilotlán de los Dolores, in the center-west of the country.

*With information from Reuters and CNN en Español.