On Sunday, tens of thousands of people across Mexico responded to the opposition’s call for a march for democracy. In Mexico City, thousands of demonstrators gathered in the Z\u00f3calo, the capital’s central square.<\/p>\n
Like everywhere else in the country, many here wore pink clothing, the color of the National Electoral Institute (INE). Mexican President Andres Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador cut funding to the institute last year and restricted control of parties’ election campaign spending.<\/p>\n
The opposition parties, including the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), which ruled Mexico for seven decades uninterrupted in the 20th century, accuse L\u00f3pez Obrador of undermining democracy. He is accused of encouraging corruption and using Mexico’s institutions to favor his Morena party in the June 2 elections.<\/p>\n
The Morena Party’s official candidate since Sunday has been Claudia Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City and a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of L\u00f3pez Obrador. Addressing the opposition demonstrators in the Z\u00f3calo, she denounced the hypocrisy of those who are now demonstrating for democracy, even though they previously promoted electoral fraud, vote buying and corruption.<\/p>\n
Sheinbaum is seen by many as a guarantor that L\u00f3pez Obrador’s policies, which particularly appeal to poorer voters, will be continued. Sheinbaum is currently clearly ahead in polls. Her challenger X\u00f3chitl G\u00e1lvez, as a candidate from the PRI, the right-wing PAN and the social democratic PRD, has so far received around 30 percent of the vote. It is therefore certain that a woman will rule Mexico for the first time in the next six years.<\/p>\n