Sheinbaum calls Mexico election ‘extraordinary’ despite low turnout– www.latimes.com
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Excerpt:MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was effusive. “Marvelous, impressive “ she told reporters Monday. “Extraordinary. … A great success.”
The superlatives kept coming about Sunday’s historic judicial elections — which Sheinbaum championed — but the president could not conceal a harsh reality: Only about 13% of 100 million eligible voters cast ballots in a vote that the president had labeled a key component of the ruling party’s ongoing “transformation” of Mexican society. She and her allies had spent weeks urging people to vote.
No one expected that Sunday’s polling — which didn’t include contenders for any national or statewide legislative posts — would approach the 61% turnout of last year’s national elections. Sheinbaum won a landslide victory last year, and her Morena political bloc swept to huge majorities in both houses of Congress and in state houses and towns across the country.
This was a festival of voter fraud, and they dare to say that the people rule.
— Jorge Romero, national leader of the National Action Party
The turnout was more disappointing than even the the lowest pre-election turnout estimates of about 15%. Some election advocates had optimistically predicted as many as one-third of voters would make it to the polls.
“Everything can be perfected,” the president conceded.
