THE result was predictable, but earth-shaking even so. On July 1st Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a charismatic populist, won Mexico’s presidency in the country’s first democratic landslide. His margin of victory suggests that his electoral coalition will control congress and the government of Mexico City, the capital, giving Mr López Obrador unprecedented power for a modern president. As in America and parts of Europe, an angry electorate has repudiated the established political elite. In Mexico’s case voters have elected an unpredictable leftist.

Mr Lopez Obrador, a 64-year-old ex-mayor of Mexico City who has run for the presidency twice before, came out on top of the election commissioner’s preliminary count, released shortly before midnight, with about 53% of the vote. His nearest challenger, Ricardo Anaya of the National Action Party (PAN), trailed far behind with 22%. José Antonio Meade of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won a dismal 16%. The size…Continue reading
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