See the women campaigning to become the first Mexico's female president

 

As Claudia Sheinbaum, the front-runner in Mexico’s presidential election, arrives for a rally in a packed park in the colonial city of Orizaba, the crowd starts to chant "President!"

Those attending are convinced that is what she is about to become: Mexico’s first-ever woman president.

The polls suggest they may well be right.

With her closest rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, also a woman, and the only man in the presidential race a distant third, Mexico is almost certainly set to break centuries of male domination of the country’s highest office.

In fluent English, Ms Sheinbaum, who belongs to the governing Morena party, says the fact that both leading candidates are women is a sign that Mexican society is finally evolving.

"I think it’s also a symbol for the world,” she said.

“Mexico has been known to be ruled by men for many years. But Mexicans are now governed by many women and that’s a change,” says the former mayor of Mexico City, referring to the gender parity in the cabinet and the high number of women serving as state governors.

Mexico is a country where around 11 women a day are murdered on average and Ms Sheinbaum was quick to acknowledge that more needed to be done to reduce violence against women.

That is easier said than done.

Veracruz is one of the five worst states for femicides in the country.

Just days before the candidate visited the eastern state, the body of 23-year-old Isamar Galindo was found with her hands tied, tortured, wrapped in a blanket, and dumped in a canal.

"Profound cultural changes don’t happen overnight," says Ms Sheinbaum of the ingrained problems of machismo and gender-based violence in Mexican society.

Throughout the campaign, her message has remained the same. If elected, she says, she will continue the social and political process launched by her mentor, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Their supporters call it the "Fourth Transformation of Mexico", comparing it with other key moments in Mexican history including independence and the Mexican Revolution.

Mr López Obrador – commonly known by his initials as Amlo – has introduced a series of social development measures to alleviate poverty including student grants and a universal state pension.

The programs are so popular that opposition candidates have been at pains to promise that they will not scrap them.