Women score historic wins in Mexico’s mid-term elections

Women were poised to win a record number of  state governors’ offices in Mexican midterm elections on Sunday, capturing territory long dominated by men and giving them a bigger political platform to reach the presidency one day.

Preliminary tallies by electoral authorities on Monday showed female  candidates  securing  six  of  the  15  regional  bastions  on  offer,  just  two  shy  of  the  total  number  of  women  ever  elected  to  lead  regional  governments  in Mexico’s history.

Five of the six went to President Andres Manuel Lopez Ob-rador’s  National  Regeneration  Movement  (MORENA),  which  dominated the state votes, even as the leftist party's hold on the lower house of Congress weakened.

If  results  are  confirmed, it means the northern border states of Baja California and Chihuahua, Guerrero and Colima on the Pacific coast, as well as  Tlaxcala  in  the  center  and  Campeche in the south, will be governed by women.“This is a cultural shift,”   said  MORENA  lawmaker  Gabriela Cuevas.

Only eight women had previously won regional elections, including the current mayor of Mexico City, MORENA’s  Claudia Sheinbaum,  who  is  regarded  as  one of the favorites to succeed Lopez Obrador as president.