Coahuila Governor-elect Manolo Jiménez Salinas. Photo: El Siglo de Torreón

By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS

In keeping with pre-election polling predictions, Mexico’s gubernatorial elections in the central State of Mexico (EdoMéx) and northern state of Coahuila brought little in the way of surprises on Sunday, June 4, with preliminary results indicating former Education Secretary Delfina Gómez winning for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party in EdoMéx and opposition coalition candidate Manolo Jiménez Salinas triumphing in Coahuila.

And while there were some minor incidences of voting irregularities in both states, the polling was generally peaceful and uneventful.

The all-important win for Morena in the state of Mexico, which has been seen as a likely barometer for Mexico’s 2024 presidential elections, was especially significant since that state has been ruled by the centralist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) unchallenged since 1929.

Still, Gómez’s victory over her chief opponent, the PRI’s Alejandra del Moral, was not as extensive as her party would have liked.

Early in the quick count, Del Moral was ahead by a slim lead of 300 votes.

But later in the evening, the Mexican Program for Preliminary Results (PREP) gave the advantage to Gómez, with an estimated 52.6 percent of the vote, compared to Del Moral’s 44.31 percent.

But, theoretically, those results could change.

The EdoMéx PREP quick count took into account votes from 617 polling stations, out of a statewide 700 stations, representing 88.1 percent of the total polling.

The final voting count will not be tallied until Wednesday, June 7, and that number will determine the official electoral results.

Meanwhile, in Coahuila, Jiménez Salinas clearly won out over Morena’s Armando Guadiana with a broad 56.93 percent to 21.47 percent advantage in the quick count.

The Labor Party’s (PT) Ricardo Mejia got 13.31 percent of the vote, and the Green Party’s (PVEM) got 5.88 percent.

Jiménez Salinas, who, like Goméz, had been predicted to win in nearly every pre-election poll, was the standard bearer of an opposition alliance composed of the PRI, the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and left-leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

Both Gómez and Salinas will take office on Sept. 15.