Mexico’s projected presidential election winner Claudia Sheinbaum will become the first woman President in the country’s 200-year history.

Ms Sheinbaum said in Mexico City: “I will become the first woman president of Mexico,” shortly after electoral authorities announced a statistical sample that showed she holds an irreversible lead.

The climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor said her two competitors had called her to concede.

“We have demonstrated that Mexico is a democratic country with peaceful elections,” Ms Sheinbaum added.

Mexico’s National Electoral Institute said Ms Sheinbaum had between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to a statistical sample. Opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez had between 26.6% and 28.6% of the vote while Jorge Alvarez Maynez had between 9.9% and 10.8%.

The governing party candidate campaigned on continuing the political course set over the last six years by her political mentor, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

His anointed successor, the 61-year-old Ms Sheinbaum led the campaign throughout despite a spirited challenge from Ms Galvez. This was the first time in Mexico that the two main opponents in the presidential contest were women.

“Of course, I congratulate Claudia Sheinbaum with all my respect who ended up the winner by a wide margin,” Mr Lopez Obrador said shortly after electoral authorities’ announcement.

“She is going to be Mexico’s first (woman) president in 200 years.”

If the margin holds, it would approach his landslide victory in 2018. Mr Lopez Obrador won the presidency after two unsuccessful attempts with 53.2% of the vote, in a three-way race where National Action took 22.3% and the Institutional Revolutionary Party took 16.5%.