IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Morena party ends almost 100 years of PRI party rule in Mexico state, which also sees its first female governor

The party formed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wrested political control in Mexico's most populous state and Delfina Gómez became its first female governor.
State Of Mexico Holds Gubernatorial Election
Delfina Gómez, governor-elect of the state of Mexico, holds hands with members of the National Regeneration Movement party at her victory celebration in Toluca early Monday. Luis Antonio Rojas / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Morena, the party formed by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, seized power for the first time in 94 years from Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in the state of Mexico, the most populous of the country's 32 states.

Morena candidate Delfina Gómez became the first woman elected governor of the state when she defeated Alejandra del Moral. Her victory ratified the dominance of the party formed by AMLO, as López Obrador is known, which already has wins in 23 other Mexican states.

“One hundred years of corruption have been long, but times change and the people united and won. The end of those 100 years of darkness and mistreatment has come, a new story begins in the state of Mexico,” Gómez said in a speech Sunday night.

Meanwhile, del Moral acknowledged in a message to the media that the preliminary results do not favor her, thereby tacitly acknowledging Gomez’s triumph.

“I greet teacher Delfina Gómez Álvarez who will be the next governor of the state of Mexico and I wish her every success. In a democracy, in order to win, you have to know how to lose,” del Moral said.

Although the data was still preliminary, the official estimate released by the state electoral institute Sunday and considered 95% reliable placed Morena’s candidate 9 points ahead of del Moral, who represented an opposition coalition, Va por México, headed by the PRI.

After midnight, with 83% of the votes counted, that margin was more than 8 points.

Amalia Pulido, president of the Electoral Institute of the State of Mexico (IEEM), said at a news conference that citizen participation was between 48.7% and 50.2%.

Delfina Gomez Casts Her Vote In Texcoco
Delfina Gómez casts her vote Sunday in Texcoco, Mexico. Carlos Santiago / NurPhoto via AP

Gómez, the former education secretary in the AMLO administration, was leading after midnight with a percentage of support between 52% and 54.2% against del Moral, who was registering between 43% and 45.2% of the votes, according to preliminary figures offered by Pulido.

Voter turnout in that state has reached around 50%, according to the latest update offered by Pulido at 8:37 p.m. local time. 

The state of Mexico, a region that combines suburbs, popular towns and agricultural communities, is an important economic center of the country but also grapples with the nation's worst challenges: inequality, violence and corruption.

That was one of the reasons why there was a sense of frustration after almost 100 years of PRI rule.

Meanwhile, in the state of Coahuila, Manolo Jiménez, the candidate for the Citizens’ Alliance for Security, widely won over Morena candidate Armando Guadiana. Jiménez's coalition was made up of the PRI, the National Action Party (PAN) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).

The results in Coahuila came from a sampling of 450 polling stations. The confidence level of the partial result is 95%, Rodrigo Paredes Lozano, of the Electoral Institute of Coahuila, said at a news cinference.

"We built a great invincible citizen front. This campaign became the meeting point for all Coahuilenses who want to do good things for our state," Jiménez said at a news conference Sunday night, the online news website Aristegui Noticias reported.

An earlier version of this story was first published in Noticias Telemundo.