Presidential and Legislative Elections, 2 June 2024

On 2 June 2024, federal and legislative elections were held over the 32 federal entities of Mexico. This included one position for president, all 128 positions for the Senate and all 500 positions for the Chamber of Deputies (INE 2024; INE n.d.). The president and senators serve for terms of six years and deputies for three years. Additionally, elections were held for Governorships, the Head of Government of Mexico City, Local Congresses, City Councils, Municipal Boards and Mayors. In total 20,000 federal, state and municipal positions were contested (INE 2024).

In Mexico, the President of the Republic is elected by the principle of relative majority (SIL 2024), as are 64 Senate members, plus 32 by first minority, and 32 by proportional representation through a national list (SIL n.d.b). In the Chamber of Deputies,  300 members are elected by relative majority through a system of uninominal electoral districts, and 200 by proportional representation through a system of regional lists voted in plurinominal constituencies (SIL n.d.a). The executive power of the Federation is vested in the President of the United Mexican States. The president is elected by direct vote, universal suffrage, and the principle of relative or simple majority to serve a maximum of one term (INE 2009).

The independent election management body, the National Electoral Institute (INE), has extensive oversight powers including the authority to allocate budgets for political campaigns and the final say on electoral disputes  (UN ECLAC n.d.). In 2023, an overhaul of the INE was approved by lawmakers leading to the cuts in the budget, a cull of staff and offices closing (NBC/Reuters 2023). Following protests involving some 700,000 citizens and subsequent legal action,  the Mexican Supreme Court invalidated the first part of the legal reforms – on administrative responsibilities and regulation of political communications (Esposito 2024; Al Jazeera 2023).

In the 2024 elections, at least 222 polling stations did not open due to security problems or social conflicts. There were almost 200 police reports and four arrests on election day. In a continuation of pre-electoral violence, serious incidents including two shootings, kidnapping attempts, burning of ballot boxes and theft of electoral materials (Tapia Sandoval and Contreras 2024) affected over 120,000 voters, according to INE estimates (Forbes 2024). The navy reported a deployment of 27,245 members of the armed forces for the election security operation, which were in addition to the 233,543 already deployed in ongoing public security tasks (Forbes 2024; Reuters 2022). 

States of strategic importance to organized crime such as Chiapas, Guerrero and Michoacán witnessed an upsurge of violence in this electoral cycle. Election observers recorded more than 129 events of political violence against officials from the start of campaigning in September 2023, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. The scale of violent attacks against candidates and family members, campaign staff and election infrastructure was described by some experts as unprecedented in Mexico (Asmann, 2024; Ferri 2024). In a striking example of electoral discrepancy, a candidate in Tijuana won with 60 per cent of the vote – but was in fact deceased. Irma Andazola’s team had continued campaigning for nine days, while her party claimed they were unaware of her death of natural causes (Guillén 2024).

The 2024 elections saw a surge in violence against women in elections (International IDEA 2024). Women faced targeted threats, attacks, and assassination, as seen in the murder of Cotija’s first female mayor, Yolanda Sánchez (Buschschlüter 2024). Violence often extended to their families, and sexist rhetoric dominated public discourse. Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first female president, faced misogynist and antisemitic insults, while social media amplified harassment through sexist hashtags, deepfakes, and AI-generated disinformation (International IDEA 2024). Some female candidates even withdrew from races due to threats (Breda & Pellegrini 2024). Days after the election, the Electoral Tribunal determined that current President López Obrador’s comments against opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez, made in eight separate press conferences, had attempted to ‘undermine the recognition of her political rights, based on her character as a woman and indigenous background, by reinforcing the stereotype of inferiority or dependence to access public office’ (Vaquero Simancas 2024). Despite widespread violence, Mexico elected its first female president and achieved gender parity in the legislature, with women making up 50.2 per cent of the lower house.

Despite a history of attempted cyberattacks in the country, the INE’s advanced systems meant there were no recorded instances of breaches during the election period. The INE deals with direct disinformation targeted to voters on social media but has no jurisdiction over problematic messages, such as fake news. To tackle disinformation about the status of polling stations, it has developed a mobile application for use by visiting monitoring teams on election day (van der Staak and Wolf 2019). For the 2024 elections, an INE chatbot for use by citizens and based on the WhatsApp platform was unveiled (Sepúlveda 2024).

On election day a double alert for high temperatures was activated (Hernández 2024). Despite temperatures of over 45 degrees Celsius, residents went to the booths equipped to mitigate their effects (Milenio 2024). The INE undertook cooling measures in polling places. Plans were also made to undertake vote tabulation in air-conditioned locations across the country (López 2024).

In the presidential elections, Claudia Sheinbaum was elected (Beltran et al. 2024) with at least 58 per cent of the vote, according to preliminary results, at least 29 points ahead of her closest competitor, Xóchitl Gálvez (Kitroeff et al. 2024). Morena, the winning party, obtained 256 of the 300 seats that are elected by direct vote in the Chamber of Deputies (Guillén 2024). Voter turnout was of 60.54 per cent, lower than the 63.21 per cent turnout recorded in 2018 (International IDEA 2024).

The Organization of American States (OAS) observed the election and offered congratulations on the election of Mexico’s first female president and the opposition’s acceptance of the results. However, they condemned the violence and its effect on the country’s democracy, recommending continued strengthening of Mexico’s electoral institutions to increase public confidence (OAS 2024).

Mexico expanded voting and access to public debates for persons detained without a final sentence and election observers were allowed to observe the voting in prisons. Early voting was introduced for voters who are unable to attend the polling station. Also for the first time, four Senate seats were allocated for indigenous people, and one for Afro-Mexican people. Electronic voting was available for voting abroad, expanding the span of voters from the diaspora. Following recommendations from the OAS/EOM, a formal protocol was introduced for candidacies and actors involved in the electoral process (OAS 2024).