On Sunday, June 5, the residents of six Mexican states went to the polls to elect their new governors. According to the quick counts released by the National Electoral Institute (INE), the ruling center-left National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party and its allies won four of the six disputed governorships.
The coalition of the MORENA party, the Labor Party (PT), the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM), the Popular Unity Party (PUP) and the Force for Mexico party (FxM) won the gubernatorial races in the states of the Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo and Tamaulipas. Meanwhile, the coalition of the right-wing opposition National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) won the elections in the Aguascalientes and Durango states.
The six governorships in dispute were previously under the administration of the opposition parties. Four of the six previous governors were from the PAN and two were from the PRI. Sunday’s election results followed the recent trend of progressive forces gaining ground in Mexico, with conservative opposition sectors losing support.
The results also proved the popularity of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and Mexican people’s support for his policies, especially the nationalization of lithium, affordable higher education, soft loans, good pensions, and zero increases in fuel prices, taxes on big corporations, expansion of reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights, and progressive foreign policies. In early April, in the country’s first ever recall referendum, an overwhelming majority voted for AMLO to stay and finish his six-year term, which ends in September 2024.
MORENA, which was founded by AMLO in 2014, has consolidated itself as the strongest political force in the country. After these latest results, MORENA and its allies will now govern 21 of the country’s 32 states, including the capital, Mexico City.
The election day was relatively peaceful. However, some disturbances were recorded in Oaxaca, where residents of Copalita burned ballots to protest the lack of support for the damage to their homes, boats and land after hurricane Agatha last week.
Speaking at his daily morning conference on June 6, AMLO celebrated that the elections were held in relative peace, without any serious act of violence.
With respect to MORENA’s victory, the head of state said, “the people are on a different wavelength. I have always said this and our adversaries have refused to accept it.” He criticized the opposition for defending inequality. “They must review their [electoral] strategy. It affects them a lot, I tell you honestly, their classism, their racism, is what the people despise them for. They have no love for the people, that is the essence of everything,” said AMLO.
The president thanked the people for “understanding the importance of carrying out this peaceful transformation”.
“It’s a real change,” he said.
