MEXICO CITY, April 10 (Reuters) – Mexico’s ruling party
presidential candidate is losing support and in danger of
slipping into third place in the polls ahead of the July 1
election, according to a daily survey by GEA-ISA for Milenio
news network released late on Tuesday.
The latest opinion poll for the election showed Josefina
Vazquez Mota, the candidate of President Felipe Calderon’s
conservative National Action Party (PAN), with 18 percent
support, down 1 percentage point from the previous survey.
It was her worst showing since the poll began some three
weeks ago. Leftist hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the
candidate of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), registered
16.5 percent support, up 1.3 points from the prior poll. He
narrowly lost to Calderon in the 2006 election.
Vazquez Mota’s bid for the presidency has been dogged by
infighting within the PAN, defections from the party, and a
steady stream of mishaps on the campaign trial that prompted the
candidate to overhaul her election team this week.
The margin of error in the survey was 3 points, the pollster
said, meaning there was little to choose between Vazquez Mota
and Lopez Obrador in terms of support. The pollster conducted
1,152 face-to-face interviews for the survey.
Front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto, of the opposition ruling
Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, had 40.1 percent
support, gaining 2 points compared to the previous poll.
In the survey, 24.7 percent of voters were undecided or
expressed no preference. That put Pena Nieto at 53.2 percent
support among those backing a specific candidate, giving him a
lead of almost 30 points over both of his rivals.
(Reporting By Ioan Grillo; Editing by Paul Simao)
