Peña Nieto Is Winner of Mexican Election, Exit Polls Show
Mexico chose as its new president Sunday Enrique Peña Nieto, a dashing, disciplined campaigner who promised to bring peace and prosperity back to a country weary of drug violence and slow growth, according to official projections by election officials.
As the new face of a political party once known for corruption, Peña Nieto and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), completed a remarkable act of political rehabilitation, returning to power after 12 years on the sidelines.
To chants of “Presidente! Presidente!” from a roaring crowd at his political party’s headquarters in Mexico City, Peña Nieto strode to the stage just before midnight for his victory speech. With the kind of messaging, discipline and stagecraft that have marked his campaign from the beginning, the 45-year-old former governor insisted “Mexico won today” — repeating a new catchphrase already printed on banners for the event.
“There’s no going back to the past,” Peña Nieto said, promising a break with the old autocratic style of his PRI forefathers, known in Mexico as the dinosaurs, in favor of a “modern, democratic, transparent” presidency.
“We are a new generation,” he said.