López Obrador, a leftist, wins sweeping mandate in Mexican presidential election

MEXICO CITY — As votes were tallied Monday following a historic election, Andrés Manuel López Obrador appeared close to gaining control of Congress as well as the presidency — a resounding mandate for the country’s first leftist leader in decades.

López Obrador won more than 50 percent of the vote, the most in the history of Mexico’s multiparty democracy, according to incomplete returns. The electoral results will give him broad power to reshape public policy, which has largely been set by pro-American, free-market-oriented politicians in recent decades.

The peso dropped about 1 percent on news of his victory, not as dramatic a slide as some had predicted, but a sign the markets are skeptical of López Obrador’s platform, which features a surge in spending on welfare programs. In a speech late Sunday, López Obrador tried to quell concerns, saying he would not increase taxes or the public debt and would respect the country's private sector.

Preliminary results suggested members of his Morena party would take at least 260 of the 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, and roughly 65 of 128 seats in the Senate.

President Trump loomed in the background of this vote. He was not a wedge issue — all the presidential candidates opposed his immigration and trade policies and his anti-Mexican rhetoric — but the new president will have to manage cross-border relations that are unusually fraught.

Although he has spoken bitterly about Trump for nearly two years, López Obrador said he desired a “friendship and mutual respect” with the United States.