Mexico: Sheinbaum wins presidential election

Mexico City: Mexico's ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum has won the presidential elections, according to exit polls released on Monday.

The 61-year-old former Mexico City mayor won around 58% of votes, according to a representative statistical sample released by election officials on Monday.

The result puts her comfortably ahead of leading opposition rival Xochitl Galvez, who had 29%.

What did the Morena party say about the election victory?
"I won't fail you," Sheinbaum told supporters after preliminary results showed her achieving a landslide victory.

"I will become the first woman president of Mexico," she added.

Mexico's president-elect pledged to run a "fiscally responsible" administration that respects the Bank of Mexico's autonomy.

The leader of the ruling Morena party, outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, congratulated her on the win.

Morena national president Mario Delgado told the Milenio TV broadcaster that the party had won a simple majority in Congress, short of the two-thirds majority it would need to push constitutional reforms past the opposition and do away with oversight agencies it claims are wasteful.

Opposition candidates have said such changes would endanger Mexican democracy.

Currently, the Morena Party also holds 23 of Mexico's 32 governorships.

Election overshadowed by violence
The election was overshadowed after two people were killed in violence at polling centers on Sunday amid a campaign that has already seen 38 candidates murdered, including a local candidate who was fatally shot on Saturday night. The deadly incidents have raised concerns about the threat of warring drug cartels to democracy.

Voting was brought to a halt at one polling center after a person was killed in a shooting in Comeyoapan, a town in the state of Puebla, according to the state electoral authority.

Another death at a polling station in Tlanalapan, also in Puebla, was reported by the state attorney general.