Polling stations open in Mexico’s largest elections in history

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Mexico’s polling stations opened their doors this Sunday to kick off the largest elections in the country’s history, in which more than 20,500 positions will be elected.

In an election runup marked by murders and acts of violence against politicians, more than 93 million Mexicans are called to renew the Chamber of Deputies, 15 governors, 30 local congresses, and thousands of city councils.

The opening of polling stations began at 8 AM local time in Mexico’s capital is located and progressively opened one and two hours later in the country’s western regions.

Almost 163,000 polling stations will be set up, and there are 1.5 million polling officials in charge of voting logistics.

There are around 19,000 electoral observers and some 559 foreign visitors from missions such as the Organization of American States (OAS) or the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean (Copppal).

Read also: Mexico closes its most violent campaign and awaits Sunday’s elections

Also at stake in these elections is whether the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena), manages to retain an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies to continue with its plan of reforms and transformation of the country, which will determine the second part of his six-year term.

These will be the second elections held in Mexico during the Covid-19 pandemic, after the October municipal elections in Hidalgo and Coahuila. The use of masks will be mandatory, and people will be distributed to avoid crowds.

The pro-government and leftist Morena is participating in most of the elections through the coalition “Juntos Haremos Historia” (Together We Will Make History), with its allies, the Labor Party (PT) and the Green Party (PVEM).

Read also: Mexico faces the “most complex” elections in its history

Its main rival is the unprecedented opposition coalition “Va por México”, formed by the conservative National Action Party (PAN), the once hegemonic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

The liberal Movimiento Ciudadano (MC) and the new parties Redes Sociales Progresistas (RSP), Encuentro Solidario (PES) and Fuerza por México (FxM) are running alone.

The electoral campaign has been stained in blood by violence and organized crime, with at least 91 politicians murdered since September, 36 of whom were candidates. More than 910 aggressions against politicians and candidates have been registered, surpassing the record number of 2018 when there were presidential, federal, and local elections.

Read also: Mexico will experience elections with unprecedented number of LGBT candidacies

In the last few hours, an official of the National Electoral Institute (INE) was murdered in Tlaxcala, and, in an ambush, five people were killed while transporting electoral paperwork in Chiapas.