Photo: AS México

By KELIN DILLON

Mexico’s historically large midterm elections, held on Sunday, June 6, have finally come to definitive results, barring a handful of cases that have necessitated recounts. 

More than 47.4 million people turned out for Sunday’s vote, putting the country’s citizen participation at 52.67 percent for the record-sized elections.

The National Electoral Institute’s (INE) quick count of votes puts the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) at approximately 197 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, down 59 seats from the 2018 elections, losing its chance at the qualified majority that could push through constitutional reform without negotiating with opposition parties.

The conservative National Action Party (PAN) won an estimated 111 seats, with 69 for its associates the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and 17 for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the three parties coming together to form the Va Por México alliance, created with the aim to remove power from Morena.

Meanwhile, Morena’s allies in its Juntos Hacemos Historia movement won some seats as well, with the Labor Party (PT) taking 38 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Green Ecological Party of Mexico (PVEM), which got in trouble over the weekend for paying influencers to promote the party during the electoral ban, won an estimated 44 seats.

Overall, Juntos Hacemos Historia coalition took an estimated 279 seats while the Va Por México alliance won 197 seats, successfully completing its aim of blocking the Morena absolute majority.

Still, Morena managed to win 11 of the 15 gubernatorial seats up for grabs across the country, still showing the leftist party’s hold on the country.

Meanwhile, the country’s capital of Mexico City seemingly split the vote down the middle of the municipality, with the western, more affluent side of the metropolitan area voting in favor of the Va Por México alliance, while the east voted completely for Morena, showing Mexico City’s stark divide and inspiring a plethora of memes across social media comparing the capital to East and West Berlin.