The former mayor of the Mexican capital Claudia Sheinbaum has increased her lead in the race to be the ruling party’s candidate in next June’s presidential election, just days before the winner is chosen, an opinion poll showed on Monday.
The Reforma newspaper poll, conducted between August 18 and 23 among 1,000 adult citizens, showed that support for Sheinbaum, 61, to represent the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena), in power, increased to 37%versus 31% in an earlier survey, from May.
Support for his closest rival in the Morena contest, former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, fell to 22% of 26% during the period, according to the survey, with a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
The ruling party will hold a national poll this week to choose the winner, to be announced on September 6.
Among those competing for the presidential candidacy of an opposition alliance, the Reforma poll showed that Senator Xóchitl Gálvez obtained the best results in the fight against the main contenders of Morena, closely followed by fellow Senator Beatriz Paredes.
The opposition alliance – the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) – will announce its presidential candidate on Sunday.
A feisty and unconventional politician who has raised the spirits of a struggling opposition, Gálvez represents the PAN in the Senate. Paredes is a veteran operator and former president of the PRI, which dominated Mexico in the 20th century.
Opinion polls show that Morena is by far the most popular party, bolstered by strong approval ratings for ruler Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who cannot run again as the law prevents presidential re-election.
The opposition’s chances are complicated by the fact that a fourth party, Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), has not yet decided whether to join the others or run separately.
In a three-way election, Sheinbaum would win the 44% of the votes, Gálvez the 27% and Samuel García, governor of Nuevo León by MC, the 12%, according to the Reforma survey. With Paredes as a candidate, the latter would obtain the 25%Sheinbaum the 46% and Garcia the eleven%.
Ebrard would also win comfortably against both senators, albeit by slightly smaller margins.
Source: Reuters
Source: Gestion
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