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Andrés Manuel López Obrador looked like he would lose a two-thirds majority in the lower house of the Mexican Congress, necessary for constitutional changes, in a midterm election he had represented as a referendum on his government.
However, in a positive evolution for the populist president, his ruling Morena party claimed to have virtually swept the elections for state governorships.
Official projections suggested that Morena and her allies would command at least 58 percent of the House of Representatives for 500 seats, or up to 298 seats, according to Lorenzo Cordoba, president of the National Electoral Institute (INE).
But the results appeared to be well below the forecasts Morena and her allies had enjoyed during the first half of the president’s single six-year term.
“Not getting the results I was looking for. . . it is likely [the president] it will try to radicalize itself, ”political commentator Jorge Zepeda Patterson told Milenio Televisión.
Mexicans voted Sunday in the larger elections in the country’s history for the entire lower house plus 15 of Mexico’s 32 state governorates, as well as more than 20,000 local seats.
Mario Delgado, Morena’s leader, previously hailed what he called a “historic triumph” in which he said Morena would sweep away 12 of the 15 governments that had been pending. Although in several states, several opposing candidates won, the official results in these races were pending.
According to INE projections, Morena could end up with 190 to 203 seats in the lower house, which would easily confirm him as the most popular party. His allied parties (the Greens, the Workers’ Party and the PSE) could get 95 more seats, Cordoba said.
However, it was not certain that the PES party would exceed the 3% threshold required to maintain the record; the INE projection estimated that it would win between zero and six seats. Without PES, Morena, the Greens and the Workers’ Party could get 265 to 292 seats, INE said.
Before the election, Morena and her allies had 334 seats and only Morena had 256.
The Institutional Revolutionary Opposition Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) joined forces to form an opposition bloc. PAN leader Marko Cortés said the association had managed to deny the ruling coalition “the qualified majority with which it has abused power for the past three years”.
“Most Mexicans want to correct the country’s leadership,” he said.
López Obrador, who says he is making a profound transformation of Mexico, eradicating corruption and raising the standard of living of the poor, did not immediately comment on the results. Political analysts have said it could challenge any adverse outcome.
Ciro Murayama, INE’s electoral councilor, said the projected results show that two out of three Mexicans did not support the ruling party.
The Movimiento Ciudadano, which did not join the opposition bloc, got up to 27 votes, according to the INE. However, even if he intended to reign, his seats would not be enough to give the ruling coalition the 334 seats it needed for a constitutional majority.
López Obrador has already passed legislation that seeks to undo the constitutional reforms in the energy sector approved by his predecessor, but the laws are expected to face challenges in the Supreme Court.
The peso traded slightly around 19.90 for the US dollar.
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