Mexico is picking up momentum for the largest ever mid-term elections in the country's history on Sunday, with tens of thousands of candidates vying to fill more than 20,000 public posts, according to authorities.
Midterm elections on Sunday present the biggest challenge yet for Lopez Obrador’s self-declared “fourth transformation” of Mexican society. The notion that foreign actors are meddling in Mexican politics is one of many that Lopez Obrador wields as evidence of attempts to sabotage his program.
The race to watch, said political observers, is the one to fill the Chamber of Deputies, or the lower house, in which the ruling progressive National Regeneration Movement (Morena) hopes to maintain or strengthen its qualified majority, as the conservative opposition strives to gain ground.
The mid-terms will essentially decide whether President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will be able to carry on with his so-called "Fourth Transformation", combat public-sector corruption and make the country more energy independent, or be forced to temper his reform drive during his remaining time in office.
Up for renewal are 15 of the country's 32 Governor posts, 500 federal deputy seats, 1,063 local deputy seats and 1,923 mayoral posts, among others, with a total of the 20,415 popularly elected positions. According to the National Electoral Institute, 93,676,029 Mexicans will be eligible to vote at 162,896 polling stations across the country.
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