Mexico City. Mexico’s projected presidential winner Claudia Sheinbaum will become the first female president in the country's 200-year history.

Sheinbaum, the favored successor of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, vowed to continue in the direction set by the populist leftist leader. But the cool-tempered scientist offers a sharp contrast in style -- and a break with Mexico's male-dominated political culture.

“I promise that I am not going to let you down,” Sheinbaum said, greeting supporters in Mexico City’s colonial-era main plaza, the Zocalo.

The National Electoral Institute’s president said Sheinbaum had between 58.3 percent and 60.7 percent of the vote, while opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez had between 26.6 percent and 28.6 percent and Jorge Álvarez Máynez had between 9.9 percent and 10.8 percent of the vote. Sheinbaum's Morena party was also projected to hold its majorities in both chambers of Congress.

The climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor said that her two competitors had called her and conceded her victory.

Sheinbaum will also be the first person from a Jewish background to lead the overwhelmingly Catholic country.

She will start her six-year term Oct. 1. Mexico’s constitution does not allow reelection.

The leftist has said she believes the government has a strong role to play in addressing economic inequality and providing a sturdy social safety net, much like her political mentor.

López Obrador's anointed successor, the 61-year-old Sheinbaum consistently led in polls despite a spirited challenge from Gálvez. This was the first time in Mexico that the two main opponents were women.

Sheinbaum is unlikely to enjoy the kind of unquestioning devotion that López Obrador has enjoyed.

Fernando Fernández, a chef, 28, said he voted for Sheinbaum because of her ties to López Obrador, using the president's initials, AMLO. But his highest hope is that Sheinbaum can “improve what AMLO couldn't do, the price of gasoline, crime and drug trafficking, which he didn't combat even though he had the power.”

The main opposition candidate, Gálvez, a tech entrepreneur and former senator, had promised a more aggressive approach toward organized crime.

In her concession speech, she said “I want to stress that my recognition (of Sheinbaum's victory) comes with a firm demand for results and solutions to the country's serious problems.”

On the fringes of Mexico City in the neighborhood of San Andres Totoltepec, 34-year-old homemaker Stephania Navarrete said she planned to vote for Sheinbaum despite her own doubts about López Obrador and his party.

“Having a woman president, for me as a Mexican woman, it’s going to be like before when for the simple fact that you say you are a woman you’re limited to certain professions. Not anymore.”

She said the social programs of Sheinbaum’s mentor were crucial, but added that the deterioration of cartel violence in the past few years was her primary concern in this election.

Nearly 100 million people were registered to vote and turnout appeared to be about 60 Claudia Sheinbaum, similar to earlier elections.

Voters were also electing governors in nine of the country’s 32 states, and choosing candidates for both houses of Congress, thousands of mayorships and other local posts, in the biggest elections the nation has seen and ones that have been marked by violence.

The elections were widely seen as a referendum on López Obrador, a populist who has expanded social programs but largely failed to reduce cartel violence in Mexico. His Morena party currently holds 23 of the 32 governorships and a simple majority of seats in both houses of Congress.

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