could not have been more predictable, as frontrunner Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the presidential election very comfortably on Sunday. “The rice is cooked,” he declared as his expected victory materialised. The overwhelming mandate is a case of third-time lucky, the story of a contender who picked up the pieces after a razor-thin defeat in 2006 and another blow in the 2012 elections. Mr. Lopez Obrador found electoral resonance with a people deeply disillusioned with rampant corruption and crime as well as a leadership seen to be adrift. With his Morena party looking at a majority in both Houses of the Mexican Congress, he will have almost unfettered legislative and executive authority. The rout of the incumbent Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), reduced to third place behind the conservatives, speaks to the sense of general disenchantment. Outgoing President Enrique Peña Nieto’s rule has been marred by allegations of poll finance irregularities and stalling of an inquiry into a separate bribery scandal. Amid this domestic turmoil, Mexico has emerged as a major foreign investment hub in recent years. Its membership of the North American Free Trade Agreement has integrated the country into the global supply chains, bolstering its image as a market-friendly destination. However, an uneven distribution of the goodies of an open economy among the regions has accentuated inequality and increased unemployment.
Addressing these challenges is among the early priorities for the 64-year-old former Mayor of Mexico City, who will assume office in December. Awkwardly for Mr. López Obrador, the state of limbo that NAFTA has been in since the election of President Donald Trump to the White House shows no sign of breaking. Once a vocal opponent of opening Mexico’s oil sector to private and foreign investment, he has of late toned down such rhetoric. Mr. López Obrador has also expressed support for free trade and a willingness to renegotiate NAFTA. Such reassurances may or may not allay the concerns of sceptics, who fear a repeat of the Latin American model of populist public investment of the last decade. But with global commodity prices gradually recovering, Mr. López Obrador may see merit in balancing the interests of business with his socio-economic agenda of combating crime and corruption. Mexico’s President-elect is by all accounts an anti-establishment politician. Time will tell whether he can resist the lure of populism while addressing crucial challenges. The thorny issue with Washington, of the status of Mexican migrants residing in the U.S., will prove to be a test case. Yet, with the emphatic mandate he has received, Mr. López Obrador has as good a base as possible to bring coherence in Mexico’s internal and external affairs.