Federal elections in Mexico 2018

The 2018 federal elections in Mexico ( Elecciones Federales en México 2018 ) took place on July 1, 2018 . On that day, Mexico held local (mayors and senators), regional ( state governors ) and presidential elections. The winner of the presidential elections was the left- wing nationalist Andrés Manuel López Obrador from the Juntos Haremos Historia coalition (MORENA, PT and PES). He took office in December 2018 as the successor to Enrique Peña Nieto .

The elections have been described as the largest in Mexican history. A total of 3,406 offices were filled. The election campaign was the bloodiest in Mexican history . As of June 26, 2018, 132 politicians were murdered in the course of the election campaign; most belonged to the opposition parties. In addition, more than 500 non-fatal attacks were registered. During the last presidential election in 2012 , “only” nine murders of politicians were recorded.

elections

• In the presidential election, the candidates José Antonio Meade Kuribreña , Ricardo Anaya Cortés , Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Jaime Rodríguez Calderón competed against each other. There was only one ballot in which the relative majority of the votes cast was enough to win the election. The term of office of the elected President will be 5 years and 10 months.
• At the same time, 500 members were elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the Mexican Parliament , 300 of them by direct election in the constituencies and another 200 by majority vote in 5 regional lists per party.
• In addition, 128 senators were elected to the House of Lords, the Senate , 96 of them by election in each state and 32 by proportional representation.

Below the federal level, the following were elected on the same day:

• the governors of 8 states : Chiapas , Guanajuato , Jalisco , Morelos , Puebla , Tabasco , Veracruz and Yucatán as well as the head of government of Mexico City (CDMX, Federal District)
• the members of the parliaments of 30 of the 32 states
• 1,595 mayors of a total of 2,246 Mexican municipalities
• numerous city councils

As of July 1, 2018, more than 157,000 polling stations were open in Mexico. Around 89 million Mexicans were eligible to vote. According to media reports, voting papers were missing in some special election centers. Mexican television stations showed pictures of people waiting in front of special election centers because the ballots there had run out. In these special polling centers, Mexicans could vote who were not in the constituency in which they are registered on the day of the vote.

According to Leonel Fernández, head of the Election Observation Group of the Organization of American States (OAS), the elections took place without any major incidents.

background

The election campaign in Mexico was accompanied by violence across the country. In the first few months of 2018, the number of murders increased by 20% compared to the previous year, which is linked to the uncertainty about the election result. Since the end of September 2017, a mayor, a candidate, campaign manager or party official have been murdered on average every four days. Politically active people at the local level were particularly affected by violence. In the states of Veracruz, Guerrero, Oaxaca or Michoacán, the probability of acts of violence was particularly high.

In 2018, the democracy researcher Edgardo Buscaglia referred to the fact that there is no democratic process in Mexico for the nomination of candidates for an electoral alliance. Instead of a transparent procedure, the respective candidates are set up in the parties "by pointing the finger". This model comes from the hegemonic tradition of the “ Party of Institutionalized Revolution ” (PRI). This procedure makes it particularly easy for the criminal cartels to use straw men to influence political offices. There is competition between the cartels for power in a given region, which in turn leads to violence.

Presidential candidates

All for Mexico coalition (Todos por México) ( PRI , PVEM and Nueva Alianza )

The coalition nominated José Antonio Meade Kuribreña (PRI). He was Minister of Finance, Minister of Social Affairs, Foreign Minister and Minister of Energy in the Peña Nieto government and before that Minister of Finance in the Calderón government .

Coalition "For Mexico Forward" (Por México al Frente) ( PAN , PRD and MC)

The coalition nominated Ricardo Anaya Cortés (PAN). He was party president of the PAN.

Coalition "Together we write history" (Juntos Haremos Historia) (MORENA, PT and PES)

The coalition nominated Andrés Manuel López Obrador (MORENA). He was head of government of the Federal District (DF) Mexico City.

Independently

Jaime Rodríguez Calderón , former governor of the state of Nuevo León , ran as an independent candidate .

Survey

Course of the results from surveys, evaluated by Oraculus, from November 2017 to June 2018

Result

The 2018 presidential elections in Mexico resulted in political upheaval. The candidate of the Morena-led coalition López Obrador won the elections with 53.2% of the vote. Ricardo Anaya (PAN) got 22.3%, while the candidate of the PRI, who has ruled for years, José Antonio Meade, achieved 16.4%.

The election of López Obrador was described as "historic" (Tagesschau), as never before had a presidential candidate in democratic Mexico received more than half of the votes in the first round. With the election, the dominance of the two largest parties to date, the PRI and the PAN, which had continued for almost a hundred years, came to an end.

literature

• Rocío Bravo Salazar: Presidential Elections 2018 in Mexico: Crisis of Political Institutions and Rise of Populism (= Ibero-Analyzes, Issue 30). Ibero-American Institute, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-935656-71-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Klaus Ehringfeld: Elections in Mexico: "We will see more violence against politicians" . In: Spiegel Online . June 30, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed July 1, 2018]).
2. ↑ Enrique Anarte: election campaign in Mexico: Deadly Risk for candidates. Deutsche Welle, June 26, 2018, accessed July 1, 2018 . 
3. ↑ 130 politicians killed in the Mexican election campaign. Deutsche Welle, June 26, 2018, accessed July 1, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Rocío Bravo Salazar: Presidential Elections 2018 in Mexico: Crisis of Political Institutions and Rise of Populism . Ibero-American Institute, Berlin 2018, p. 3.
5. ^ ^{A b} tagesschau.de: Election in Mexico: Lopez Obrador new president. Retrieved on July 2, 2018 (German). 
6. ^ ^{A b} Andrés Manuel López Obrador: Left nationalist wins presidential election in Mexico . In: ZEIT ONLINE . ( zeit.de [accessed on July 3, 2018]).
7. ↑ tagesschau.de: Crime in Mexico: Death in the election campaign. Retrieved June 28, 2018 (German). 
8. ↑ Organized crime: Before the election, the mafia in Mexico murdered more than 100 politicians - "Mexico is a mafiocracy" . ( handelsblatt.com [accessed June 28, 2018]).
9. ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Election campaign in Mexico: Deadly risk for candidates | DW | 06/26/2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018 .