MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The ruling party of Mexico has selected long-time politician Clara Brugada as its candidate for the mayor of Mexico City, positioning her as a strong contender to win the election in June.
If she is successful in her campaign for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), Brugada could become the second consecutive woman to be elected as mayor of the Mexican capital.
Following the announcement, Brugada took to social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, early on Saturday to express her gratitude, writing, “Thank you to everyone who gave us their trust. Today we came out strong and united to win the heart of our great capital.”
In order to pursue the mayoral post, two-time congresswoman Brugada stepped down from her position as mayor of Iztapalapa, a large borough in the southeast of the city with a population of over 1.8 million. She had previously served three terms as mayor and established a respected track record during her time in charge.
Despite being comfortably defeated in polling commissioned by the party by the capital’s former chief of police Omar Garcia Harfuch, 60-year-old Brugada secured the nomination due to new gender parity rules on political representation in Mexico. The rules require parties to nominate at least five women for the posts of regional government heads to meet the quota.
The upcoming election in June will see nine regional government heads, including the mayor’s position, being elected. MORENA party leaders have confirmed that Brugada will be running for the job to meet the gender parity quota.
For decades, Mexico City has been a stronghold of the left, but MORENA faced a setback in the 2021 midterm elections, losing more than half of the city’s boroughs to the opposition.
The mayor’s job in Mexico City has historically served as a launchpad for presidential ambitions. In 2005, Lopez Obrador launched the first of three presidential bids from the mayor’s office. Claudia Sheinbaum, who was then the environment chief and became mayor in 2018, won the party’s presidential nomination in September for the 2024 election.
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Dave Graham and Diane Craft)
