Mexico City, Mexico — Mexicans cast their votes to elect their next president on Sunday. The polls have officially closed, and the Mexican people are awaiting the preliminary results, which are expected to be disclosed later Sunday night.
With over 170,000 polling stations throughout the country’s 32 states, Mexicans cast their votes in these historic elections to make a decision about how the next six years of their country will progress.
“There has been a radical change; I see more participation than in previous elections; I think people are more informed and interested. It is a wonderful thing witnessing more participation. It is a reflection that everyone is more interested,” 58-year-old Eduardo Torres from San Lorenzo Coacalco told Aztec Reports.
As polls closed and the final votes were entered, the atmosphere at polling sites around Mexico City was positive, framed by a sense of carrying out a civic duty.
“Today is an important day for the country because, as citizens, we have the responsibility to elect the person who will define the country’s path for the next 10, 20, or 30 years. We are voting not only for ourselves but for the next generations,” said Sofia Santiago Mata, a 21-year-old student from the State of Mexico.
The head of the Organization of American States (OAS) electoral mission, Heraldo Muñoz, however, said that the Mexican elections were carried out “adequately” and admitted that “there are some tensions or abnormal situations.”
In some places across Mexico, both election officials and citizens reported incidents of violence that transpired around the time of the elections.
In Cuautitlan Izcali, a municipality in the central State of Mexico, there have been reports of the burning ballot boxes as polls closed. Although there has been no official statement from the National Electoral Institute (INE) or local authorities, media have reported the arrest of a possible suspect.
Elsewhere, the Associated Press reported that a man was kidnapped at a polling station in the southern Chiapas state, and in Puebla, in central Mexico, a shootout was reported between supporters of the Labor Party and the Green Ecologist Party, resulting in at least one person dead.
With over 30 candidates killed during the lead up to this year’s vote, the 2024 elections have been the most violent in the country’s history.
Preliminary results from the elections are expected to be delivered at at 8:00 p.m. local time when the INE begins transmitting the quick counts and trends.
“It is important to vote and make use of our Mexican power through our democracy. If we want to force the change we badly want for Mexico, we must step up and use that power. We need to pursue change from every one of us, and that can only happen through our votes,” said Mayra Contreras, a teacher from the municipality of Metepec.
