Mexico poised to elect first woman president after primary results

Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Mexico is poised to elect its first female president after the governing party and the leading opposition party both selected women candidates in primary elections.

Claudia Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City and loyalist to current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, won the Morena party's nomination on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Sen. Xóchitl Gálvez, a businesswoman who grew up with an Indigenous father and mestizo mother and worked her way through a public university before starting a successful business and entering politics, won the nomination for the opposition coalition, the Broad Front for Mexico.

The upcoming match highlights the dramatic change for women in politics in Mexico. Currently, women lead both houses of Mexico's Congress and the chief justice of the country's Supreme Court is a woman.

Sheinbaum, a former climate scientist, has been considered a frontrunner in the race due to her proximity to Obrador and if elected she would also become Mexico's first Jewish president.

"She will have López Obrador's support, but building her own narrative, forging her own image -- that's her first challenge," Carlos Ramírez, a political analyst said. "She needs him, and he is popular. Why break with that? But she has to find a middle way."

She faced some opposition from Morena's primary runner-up Marcelo Ebrard who demanded the vote be conducted again as he alleged favoritism toward Sheinbaum after his supporters found anomalies in 14% of the ballots cast in the national poll Morena conducted.

Edbrard, however, has since ruled himself out of the race.

Galvez got her start in national Mexican politics under conservative President Vicente Fox, who named her his commissioner for indigenous affairs. From there, she became a borough president in Mexico City and then a senator.

She has championed social causes including addressing environmental issues, abortion rights and LGBTQ rights.

The pending election comes as Mexico's Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday to decriminalize abortion.