MEXICO CITY — Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a divisive former Mexico City mayor who vowed to upend Mexico’s corrupt status quo, cruised to the biggest win in nearly four decades in Sunday’s presidential election, moving the country’s politics sharply to the left and dealing a major blow to its established political parties.
López Obrador got more than 53% of the vote, according to a representative sample of ballots released by Mexico’s election agency. That was more than 30 percentage points more than his closest rival, conservative Ricardo Anaya, who tallied an estimated 22% of the vote. José Antonio Meade of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party garnered just 16% of the vote. Complete results were expected early on Monday.
The margin of victory and the winner’s total was the largest in Mexico since 1982, before the country became a full democracy.
Exit polls also showed López Obrador’s party, the Movement for National Regeneration, or Morena, winning an outright majority in both houses of Mexico’s congress, several key gubernatorial races as well as the Mexico City mayor’s office.
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