Mexico ruling party wins lower house super-majority but falls short in Senate

FILE PHOTO: General elections in Mexico
Mexico City, June 2, 2024. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha
Source: REUTERS

Mexico ruling party wins lower house super-majority but falls short in Senate

Mexico's ruling Morena party and its allies have won a super-majority in the lower house of Congress but not the Senate, the party's president said on Sunday, falling just short of the two-thirds majority needed in both houses to change the constitution.

Preliminary results from the June 2 vote, which elected Claudia Sheinbaum as Mexico's first woman president in a landslide, had showed her party, Morena, and its allies coming close but missing out on the two-thirds majority.

Ultimately, Morena's coalition, which includes the Green Party and the Labor Party, will control 83 seats in the 128-seat Senate, just shy of the 85-seat super-majority threshold, Morena President Mario Delgado said in a social media post.

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU

Press freedom

RSF index reveals that press freedom gaps widened globally in 2025

In the 500-member lower house of Congress, the ruling leftist coalition will have 372 seats, above the 334-seat super-majority threshold, Delgado said.

"With a super-majority in the lower house and a majority in the Senate, we will deepen the transformation to keep building a country with well-being and shared prosperity," Delgado said.

Mexico's INE electoral authority had said it would recount 60% of votes. Mexican opposition leader Xochitl Galvez, who lost to Sheinbaum in the election by some 30 percentage points, had called for a recount of 80% of the ballot boxes.

Uncertainty over the makeup of the next Congress, which takes office in September, roiled markets last week since both outgoing leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and President-elect Sheinbaum signaled their support for sweeping reforms to the constitution.

The potential reforms include the elimination of independent energy regulators, while consolidating power in the executive branch, in addition to an overhaul of the judiciary that would see popularly elected Supreme Court judges.

This article was produced by Reuters news agency. It has not been edited by Global South World.