Voters choose next president of Mexico as elections kick off

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Latest on Mexico’s elections (all times local):

1:15 p.m.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has cast his vote in elections to choose his successor.

Pena Nieto tells reporters at the polling station that his administration will be “absolutely respectful and support the authorities that are elected.”

Candidate Jose Antonio Meade of Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party has been running third in most polls, behind front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the leftist Morena party and conservative Ricardo Anaya of a right-left coalition.

Pena Nieto said Sunday that the vote “should reaffirm us in our democratic vocation.”

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12:30 p.m.

The head of Mexico’s electoral institute says voting across the country has been proceeding “peacefully, without major incidents.” Lorenzo Cordova says only four of the 156,807 polling places failed to open.

Front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador voted early, saying “today the people will decide between more of the same or a real change.”

Candidates Ricardo Anaya and Jose Antonio Meade both said they were expecting to be celebrating when polls close later Sunday.

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8:20 a.m.

Polls have opened in Mexico’s presidential and local elections, and front-running candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is among the first to line up at his polling place in Mexico City.

While the left-leaning candidate holds a commanding lead in polls, voters who don’t like him also lined up early.

Twenty-six-year-old Juan Carlos Limas said he’s “concerned that some candidates are making proposals that are impossible, because they’re very expensive to carry out.” He says he’s voting for Ricardo Anaya, candidate of a right-left coalition.