Ahead of Sunday’s vote: Hon Malomba leads no-nonsense team of int’l election observers to Mexico.

The youthful magistrate-turned politician is head of a delegation from the United States International Centre for Electoral Support to the general elections in Mexico. 

Hon Malomba, who in 2021, was part of the Commonwealth Observer Mission to General Elections in Zambia, will be observing the elections alongside other renowned election observers from across parts of the world.

Observers say the 2024 presidential election will mark a milestone in Mexico’s history and will test the nation’s democratic process. 

Millions of Mexican citizens will go to the polls on June 2, to elect a new president, all members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic, as well as eight governors, Mexico City’s Head of Government, 31 local congresses, and other representatives around the country. 

The elections will be the largest in Mexico’s history. 

For the first time, a woman could be elected to lead the country for the next six years.

Pundits say the elections are significant, not solely due to their size nor the gender of possible victors but also a result of the breadth and depth of the issues that will confront whoever takes office on October 1, 2024. 

Nearly 100 million voters, including a record number of first-timers, will participate in the elections.

The winning presidential candidate will succeed President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known also as AMLO, and govern Mexico for the next six years. 

So far in the campaign, dozens of candidates have been killed while hundreds more have asked for state protection; particularly those vying for positions at the state and local levels, amid record levels of violence.

Who are the candidates?

The leading presidential candidates include Claudia Sheinbaum, a former environmental scientist and Mexico City mayor and Xóchitl Gálvez. Sheinbaum is the candidate for the ruling National Regeneration Movement, Morena coalition and the current front-runner. 

Gálvez is successful tech entrepreneur and former senator. He is supported by an alliance of opposition parties.

While the next president will benefit from the economic tailwinds of nearshoring, he/she will face a host of domestic challenges, including energy and water shortages, fiscal deficits, violence and the spread of organised crime, and the movement of millions of migrants into and through Mexico.

On the positive side, the next president will inherit a growing economy, led by trade with the United States of America. 

In 2023, Mexico became the United States’s largest trade partner, with bilateral exchanges nearing $900 billion. 

Foreign direct investment, FDI, also rose, reaching $36 billion. Much of it was funneled into manufacturing and companies looking to place production outside of China to more easily access US markets. Still, these inflows fell short,  compared to other emerging markets and Mexico’s own historic highs a decade ago. 

A top-fifteen global economy, Mexico received less than 3 percent of global FDI last year.

Limited energy and water availability present significant barriers to a nearshoring boom and Mexico’s industrial takeoff. 

In the domain of security, the next president will face heightened insecurity and weakened rule of law. 

Over the past five years, Mexico has not gotten safer. Murder rate remains high, while extortion rates have risen to some 50 percent. 

Organised crime has spread geographically and expanded business operations, including protection rackets for avocado and lime farmers, contraband energy producers, and migrant smugglers. Complaints of public corruption are also rising. 

Meanwhile, the militarisation of security has drastically reduced the capability of civilian police.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No3127 of Friday May 31, 2024