With polls closed, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is the presumed winner of the Mexican presidential election.
Lopez Obrador, better known by his initials AMLO, will be the first candidate from the left-wing political coalition Juntos Haremos Historia to hold the Mexican presidency after Sunday's election.
One exit poll by Parametria showed Lopez Obrador with a handy lead of 20 percentage points, winning between 53 percent and 59 percent of the vote, far ahead of his two main rivals from Mexico's traditional parties. His rivals, José Antonio Meade of the long-dominant centrist PRI party and Ricardo Anaya of the center-right PAN, both conceded the election shortly after polls closed.
US President Donald Trump congratulated Lopez Obrador in a tweet late Sunday: 'Congratulations to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on becoming the next President of Mexico. I look very much forward to working with him. There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico!' Lopez Obrador, 64, has fiercely opposed Trump's policies on immigration, saying it is 'a human right' for people around the world to be able to resettle in America.
'Soon, very soon, after the victory of our movement, we will defend migrants all over the American continent and the migrants of the world who, by necessity, must abandon their towns to find life in the United States; it's a human right we will defend,' Lopez Obrador said in a June speech reported by El Universal.
The first high-level contact between Lopez Obrador and the White House is likely to be a phone call on Monday. Earlier on Sunday, Trump raised the prospect of taxing cars imported from Mexico if there are tensions with the new government. On Sunday night, Lopez Obrador's supporters wildly celebrated his apparent overwhelming presidential win even before authorities released official results.
Thousands of people poured into Mexico City's sprawling main square, known as the Zocalo, where the former mayor had called on his backers to rally after polls closed. Retired Susana Zuniga beamed as she said the country was experiencing a moment similar to the Mexican Revolution a century ago. In her words: 'The people are fed up, that is what brought us to this.
'Motorists cruised up and down the central Paseo de la Reforma honking horns to the tune of 'Viva Mexico!' and waving Mexican flags from car windows and moonroofs.He added: 'As soon as the election is over, we will begin a period of national reconciliation. 'Lopez Obrador faces a tougher security situation than did President Enrique Pena Nieto. The election campaign has been the bloodiest in recent history and murders are at record highs.
His railing against the 'mafia of power' that has long ruled Mexico and in favor of the poor appears to be falling on receptive ears with polls showing him with a wide lead over three rivals who have failed to ignite voters' interest. 'The corrupt regime is coming to its end,' Lopez Obrador said at his final campaign event Wednesday. 'We represent modernity forged from below.'
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