Those polls showed Lopez Obrador — who vowed a sweeping “transformation” of a nation where voters have expressed broad discontent with rampant corruption, rising crime and a sluggish economy — ahead by 20 percentage points.
Shortly after the last polls closed at 8 p.m. in Mexico City, and before any actual results were released, the other candidates began conceding defeat.
“I recognize that the tendencies do not favor me,” Jose Antonio Meade, presidential hopeful of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said in a speech at the party headquarters in Mexico City. “At this moment I will have to recognize that, in accordance with the tendencies, it was Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who obtained the majority. He will have the responsibility of directing executive power. And for the good of Mexico I wish him the best success.”
Ricardo Anaya of the center-right National Action Party soon followed, as did the sole independent candidate, Jaime "El Bronco" Rodriguez.
"I wish him success for the best of Mexico," Anaya said.
Official results were not expected for several hours.
If formally declared the winner, Lopez Obrador would take office on Dec. 1, succeeding current President Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI.
The concession from the PRI candidate came after exit polls from the Televisa network showed Lopez Obrador with a commanding lead of approximately 20 percentage points compared with Anaya, his nearest challenger.
The lead corresponded to preelection polls that had long showed Lopez Obrador as a runaway winner. The challengers had been unable to chip away at Lopez Obrador’s lead, which was largely fueled by voter anger at the status quo of Mexican politics.
According to the Televisa exit polls, Lopez Obrador won between 43% and 49% of the vote and Anaya garnered between 23% and 27%.
Meade was in third place, according to the Televisa exit polls, with between 22% and 26% of the vote.
It appeared to be a humiliating third-place finish for the PRI, which currently holds the presidency and dominated Mexican politics for much of the 20th century.
Reaction to the apparent Lopez Obrador victory was swift.
Election day was proceeding “with tranquillity [and] without major incidents,” Lorenzo Cordova, head of Mexico's electoral institute, said in a statement.
Lopez Obrador ran under the banner of his own political party, the National Regeneration Movement, known as Morena.
The movement was launched four years ago after Lopez Obrador — a veteran politician and former mayor of Mexico City — split from the center-left party that he had formerly headed.
His victory could trigger a sea change in Mexican politics and significantly alter Mexico’s relations with its giant neighbor, the United States, experts said.
Many observers expect that a Lopez Obrador administration would be less accommodating to Washington — especially to the Trump administration, which has consistently assailed Mexico and Mexicans — than past presidents here.
Mexico shares an almost 2,000-mile border with the United States, a source of both tension — the border is a hub of illegal immigration and drug-smuggling — and of tens of billions of dollars annually in international trade.
