Mexico chooses its first woman President: An expert explains why the election is a landmark for gender equality

Almost 100 million Mexicans were eligible to vote. Sheinbaum Pardo will take office on October 1 for a six-year term until 2030.

There was a third, long-shot candidate in the running as well, Jorge Álvarez Máynez of the centre-left Citizens’ Movement party.

End of ‘machismo’

The election indicates a significant shift in Mexican politics by ending the ‘machismo’ character that has historically defined the presidency. The candidature of two women symbolises the progress Mexico has made in its democratisation process since 1988, when the country’s first competitive presidential election was held. Sunday’s election marks Mexico’s transition from a mere functional democracy to a democracy based on strong institutional foundations.

The election of a woman President will also set a precedent for North America as a whole — neither the United States nor Canada has as yet elected a woman leader to office. Sheinbaum Pardo will be the seventh elected woman President in Latin America, after Violeta Chamorro of Nicaragua (1990), Mireya Elisa Moscoso of Panama (1999), Michelle Bachelet of Chile (2006), Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina (2007), Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica (2010) and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil (2011).

The contest between two women candidates is a testament to the significant strides Mexico has made towards gender equality in politics, and reflects the increasing participation of women in electoral politics. This progress results from decades of deliberate efforts made by Mexican authorities, political parties, and civil society organisations through advocacy, legislation, and campaigns to raise the representation of women in Congress and other political institutions.

In 2018, the 500-member Mexican Congress achieved gender parity with 246 women and 254 men, a stark contrast to 1991, when it had only 23 women representatives. This election marks the culmination of those efforts, and highlights the success of Mexico’s progressive electoral reforms.

First efforts at democratisation

Indeed, Mexico has moved from the days of dedazo, in which the outgoing President selected their successor, to process-based methods such as nationwide surveys, debates, and election primaries. The selection process for the current presidential candidates was completed by late last year.

The first step to become a modern democracy with a multi-party contested political system was to move away from 90 years of a single-party regime. Historically, Mexico’s political landscape was dominated by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or PRI), which maintained control through authoritarian practices including dedazo.

An internal faction demanding democratisation challenged PRI’s dominance in 1988, leading to the formation of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, or PRD). The ruling party used all means to defeat the new opposition, including rigging the election and declaring Carlos Salinas de Gortari of the PRI the winner. Upon completion of his sexenio, or six-year presidential term, Salinas admitted that the 1988 election had been rigged.

Reforms strike deep roots

Salinas was the last PRI president to be selected through dedazo. His successor, Ernesto Zedillo, was chosen by a more democratic process within the PRI, marking the beginning of substantial electoral reforms. During his presidency, Salinas had initiated institutional arrangements to conduct fair elections, including amending the constitution. Zedillo continued the reform process, culminating in the establishment of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), which later became the National Electoral Institute (INE). These reforms aimed to ensure equal participation for all political parties and to reduce the PRI’s outsize influence in the political system.

In the 2000 presidential election, Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional, or PAN) defeated the candidates from PRI and PRD, marking the first time an opposition party won the presidency. The result of the election demonstrated the effectiveness of the reforms, and set the stage for further democratisation.

PAN repeated this success in 2006 with the election of Felipe Calderón as President. Subsequent election reforms ensured fair multi-party participation through various agencies that monitored electoral spending, campaign funding, and campaign duration.

Process to fruition

In 2012, the PRI made a comeback as Enrique Peña Nieto defeated Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) of the PRD, providing evidence that the electoral reforms had struck roots deep enough to allow a former ruling party candidate to return to power.

However, the most significant shift came in 2018, when AMLO, having left the PRD to form the National Regeneration Movement (Movimiento Regeneración Nacional, or Morena), won the presidency with more than 54% of the vote, signalling the rise of a third force in Mexican politics.

The current contest is between Morena and FAM, an alliance comprising PRI, PAN, and PRD. Alongside the presidential election, Mexicans will vote for 128 federal Senators, 500 Congress members, Governors in nine states, and numerous local officials. Regardless of which political formation wins the presidency, the election will be a testament to the success of Mexico’s political reform process, and to the maturity and robustness of its democratic institutions.

Dr Ravindranathan P teaches at the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal