President-elect López Obrador takes office tomorrow and hopes are high that he will quickly bring change to Mexico.

The survey Expectations of Government 2018-2024, conducted by the polling firm Consulta Mitofsky for the newspaper El Economista, shows that 45% of Mexicans polled believe that change will be noticeable within a year.

More than half of those respondents said they expected change to be apparent within six months.

A further 25% said it would take between one and three years for López Obrador to achieve change in the country.

A pessimistic 5% of respondents said that change would never be seen in Mexico while another 5% said it would take longer than the six years the new president will have in office.

Asked whether the general situation in Mexico under López Obrador’s leadership would improve or get worse, 43.2% said that things would get better and 17% said that they would continue equally as well.

Only 12.8% of those polled said that things would get worse while another 12% said that the situation would remain as bad as it is now.

The combined 60.2% of people who believe that Mexico “will improve” or “continue just as well” during López Obrador’s administration is higher than the percentages who said the same about the previous two governments when they took office.

In November 2012, just before President Peña Nieto was sworn in, 52.3% of poll respondents said that they anticipated that the country’s situation would improve or continue just as well under his leadership, while in November 2006, just 48.8% said that they expected the same during the Felipe Calderón administration.

López Obrador also fared five points better than Peña Nieto on a question asking whether the incoming president would succeed in maintaining control of the country through his six-year term.

However, almost one-third of respondents said the new president would “lose the reins” of the country at some point.

The poll found that people’s three main demands of the new government are to change the security strategy to combat violence, put an end to corruption and create jobs. Other lesser demands were to improve the economy, be honest and improve salaries.

Just under 52% of poll respondents said they expected López Obrador to keep all or most of his campaign promises while 9% expected he wouldn’t keep any of them.

Over 62% of those surveyed said they approved of the way that López Obrador conducted himself as president-elect while just under 35% said that they disapproved.

During the five-month transition period, the incoming government held two public consultations – one on the new Mexico City airport and another on 10 infrastructure projects and social programs – that proved to be divisive.

While many people welcomed the chance to have their say, others said that the referendums were illegal and unrepresentative.

The leftist political veteran will take office tomorrow with a “credibility” rating of 60%, a figure around 15 points higher than those enjoyed by Peña Nieto and Calderón when they were sworn in.

However, Vicente Fox, president between 2000 and 2006, enjoyed even higher ratings than López Obrador both on credibility and approval of his actions as president-elect.

Asked whether the new administration will bring a change to the way Mexico is governed or merely a change of personnel, 53.9% said the former while 27.8% opted for the latter.

López Obrador won the July 1 presidential election in a landslide at his third attempt, obtaining 53% of the total vote. His Morena party-led coalition also won majorities in both houses of Congress.

Five months later, he still has a strong approval rating. Another recent poll found 67.2% of respondents had a good or very good opinion of their new president.

López Obrador will be sworn in tomorrow morning at a ceremony at the federal Congress, where heads of state and dignitaries from around the world will be in attendance.

Source: El Economista (sp)