Mexico is preparing to hold this Sunday the largest elections in its history, in which it could elect its first female president, but which have been marked by violence, with more than 30 candidates murdered, and by the figure of the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

As a sign of violence, more than 100 polling stations (voting centers) will not open in Chiapas, a state on the southern border of Mexico, where the Institute of Elections and Citizen Participation (IEPC) suspended the elections this weekend in the municipalities of Chicomuselo and Pantelhó due to violence. In addition, they murdered this Friday, in the middle of the electoral ban, Jorge Huerta, candidate of the ruling Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) for councilor in the municipality of Izúcar de Matamoros, in the state of Puebla.

The Government recognized on Tuesday the murder of 22 candidates, but independent organizations record more, such as 31 reported by Data Cívica, 32 by Causa en Común and 34 by the consulting firm Integralia, which raises the figure to around 250 political homicides by including advisors, officials, family members and collateral victims. “This has been the most violent election in the modern history of our country,” Armando Vargas, senior consultant at Integralia, told EFE.

The Secretary of the Navy (Semar) reported on Tuesday of a deployment of 27,245 elements of the Armed Forces for the election security operation, which will be added to the 233,543 who already carry out public security tasks.

More than 98 million people called to the polls

These will be the biggest elections in the history of Mexico, because more than 98 million people They are called to go to nearly 170,000 electoral centers to renew more than 20,000 positions, such as the presidency, the 500 deputies, the 128 senators and nine state governments, including Mexico City.

With this, the continuity of the president’s policies is in dispute, Andrés Manuel López Obradorwho cannot be re-elected, but who hopes for the victory of his candidate, Claudia Sheinbaumand that his National Regeneration Movement (Morena) retains control of Congress and most state governments.

“There is a lot at stake, but above all, knowing whether López Obrador’s policies, on issues such as militarism, energy, economy and security, transcend his six-year term (2018-2024),” political scientist William Jensen, associate of the Mexican Council of International Affairs, told EFE. (Comexi).

The main opponent is Xochitl Galvez, which represents an alliance of parties that have already governed, National Action (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in addition to the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in which López Obrador previously served. Although he is also in the race Jorge Álvarez Máynezfrom the opposition Citizen Movement (MC), it is most likely that Mexico elects its first female president.

“If we think that a few decades ago the presence of women in the political arena was minimal, the fact that we are now talking about this issue, considering that a woman will govern us as president of the republic, is a very important advance“political scientist Helena Varela, from the Universidad Iberoamericana, told EFE.

The campaigns were marked by the figure of López Obrador, who appeared as if he were “a fourth candidate“, according to the opposition. In fact, before the start of the electoral ban before tomorrow’s vote, the president referred to the election as a “referendum.”

“It is going to be very important because Sunday is more than an election, It’s a referendumit is a plebiscite, it is a consultation, it is not just choosing the authorities, choosing the party, no, it is choosing the nation project that we want,” he expressed in his morning conference on Thursday.

Gálvez went to the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) in May to denounce that the “president openly influences, interferes in the candidacy, in the election in favor of his candidate.” Even this Friday, the National Electoral Institute (INE) opened an investigation into the spokesperson for the Presidency, Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, for possible violation of the ban for disseminating a Gallup poll that gives 80% approval for López Obrador.