Mexico’s election has become its bloodiest in modern history after the number of assassinated candidates reached 37 before today’s vote.
The election is likely to give Mexico its first woman president as voters decide between a former academic who is promising to advance the current leader’s populist policies and a former senator and tech entrepreneur who has pledged to escalate the fight against the drug cartels.
Nearly 100 million people are registered to vote to replace Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the outgoing president.
They will also elect governors in nine of the country’s 32 states and choose candidates for both houses of Congress, as well as thousands of mayorships and other local posts.
Image: Opposition presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez and frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum. Pic: AP
The number of candidates assassinated in the 2024 election has now reached 37 – one more than during the 2021 midterm election – after a candidate running for local office in Puebla state was murdered at a political rally on Friday, according to data from security consultancy firm Integralia.
The consultancy has also recorded 828 non-lethal attacks on candidates during the election season, up from 749 since Monday.
Mexico’s constitution prohibits the president from being re-elected.
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Mr Lopez Obrador’s Morena party holds 23 of the 32 governorships and a small majority of seats in both houses of Congress.
The party hopes to gain a two-thirds majority in Congress to amend the constitution to eliminate oversight agencies it says are unwieldy and wasteful, something the opposition argues would endanger Mexico’s democratic institutions.
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Image: Claudia Sheinbaum is widely expected to win the vote. Pic: AP
Who will be Mexico’s first woman president?
Both major presidential candidates are women, while a third from a smaller party is trailing far behind.
Mexico City’s mayor Claudia Sheinbaum is widely expected to win the vote and become president.
She is running for the ruling Morena party and has promised to continue all of Mr Lopez Obrador’s policies, including a universal pension for the elderly and a programme paying youths to undertake apprenticeships.
Image: Opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez. Pic: AP
Opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez, who has indigenous roots, is running with a coalition of major opposition parties.
She left the Senate last year to focus her criticism of Mr Lopez Obrador’s decision to avoid confronting the drug cartels through his “hugs not bullets” policy and has pledged to go after criminals more aggressively.
Cartel violence a key issue
Mexico’s problems with cartel violence and its middling economic performance are likely to be the main issues on voters’ minds.
As well as the battle for control of Mexico’s congress, the race for Mexico City is also important. Ms Sheinbaum is the latest of many Mexico City mayors, including Mr Lopez Obrador, who have gone on to run for president.
Polls open at 8am (3pm UK time) and close at 6pm (1am Monday UK time) in most of the country.
Partial preliminary results are expected by 9pm (4am Monday UK time) after the last polls in different time zones close.
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
Image: The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
Image: The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Image: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Image: Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
Image: The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
Image: The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.