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Shortly after polls closed Sunday, Jose Antonia Meade, a former finance minister and candidate for the center-right Institutional Revolutionary Party, which dominated politics in Mexico for decades, conceded in a speech to supporters.
Meade said voting intentions did not favor him nor his coalition, and predicted Lopez Obrador, known by his initials AMLO, would win “the majority of votes.”
“He will have the responsibility to conduct the executive power, and for the good of Mexico I wish him well,” Meade said.
Soon after Meade’s speech, Ricardo Anaya Cortes, who led a coalition of parties and was considered the strongest challenger to AMLO, also threw in the towel. Jaime Rodríguez Calderon, known as El Bronco, also conceded defeat.
Polls closed at 9 p.m. ET and official results are not expected for several hours.
AMLO mania
For many of the 89 million eligible Mexican voters, Sunday’s election was a referendum on the country’s political elite and its economic direction, as well as the tenure of President Enrique Peña Nieto, who was limited to a single six-year term.
Younger Mexicans, many of whom have grown up surrounded by rampant corruption and drug violence, were expected to have played a key role in choosing the country’s direction. Nearly 13 million voters between the ages of 18 and 23 were expected to vote for the first time, according to election officials.
Homicide rates soared to an all-time high under Peña Nieto, whom critics accused of failing to adequately deal with crime, corruption and economic inequality.
Mexico’s new leader will have to contend with US President Donald Trump’s threats to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement and his calls for the construction of a border wall between the two countries, among other divisive talking points. Lopez Obrador, who at times led polls by as much as 20 points, told voters that he is the person for the job.
Lopez Obrador pushed back against plans for a border wall in a book he wrote titled “Oye Trump, or “Listen Trump.” He also pledged to propose to keep NAFTA.
He ran on a populist platform to break what he described as the grip that elites — or “power mafia” — have on Mexican society. He said he would lower the salaries of top officials and give those at the bottom a pay rise. He promised to sell the presidential planes and turn the presidential palace into a public park.
CNN’s Nicole Chavez and Dakin Andone contributed reporting.
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