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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2006 
Calderon Overtakes Lopez Obrador in Mexico Voter Poll
 Bloomberg
| | Mexican PAN (National Action Party) presidential candidate Felipe Calderon during a campaign event in Monterrey, January 26, 2006. Calderon has taken the lead for the first time ahead of the July election, a new opinion poll by the Reforma newspaper showed on Tuesday. (Luis Reyes/Reuters) |
Felipe Calderon of Mexican President Vicente Fox's National Action Party rose to first in a voter opinion poll released today ahead of the July 2 presidential election.
Support for Calderon, a former energy minister, rose to 38 percent in April from 31 percent in March, Reforma newspaper said on its on-line edition. Former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the frontrunner in polls for more than two years, fell to second, with his support declining to 35 percent from 41 percent in March. He won't attend the campaign's first debate scheduled for tonight at 9:30 p.m. New York time.
Mexican stocks and currency gained on optimism that Calderon, if elected, would help bolster growth in Latin America's second-biggest economy.
"Calderon seems to be the most keen to kickstart the reform process that at some point should deliver upgrades in Mexico's credit ratings and ensure faster growth," said Loic Cadiou, who helps manage about $2.5 billion in emerging market assets for Credit Agricole Asset Management in London.
Former Tabasco state Governor Roberto Madrazo, the candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the nation's biggest, remained in third with 23 percent compared with 25 percent in March.
Grupo Reforma interviewed 2,100 registered voters in 140 municipalities between April 20 and 22. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
Calderon's lead is bigger than the margin of error, indicating he is now the frontrunner for the ballot. Under the Mexican constitution, President Fox, who is serving a six-year term, cannot run again.
Mexico's peso strengthened for the first day in five, gaining 0.1 percent to 11.0610 per dollar at 9:37 a.m. New York time while the country's Bolsa stock index rose to a record, climbing 0.5 percent to 20,289.26.
Guillermo Parra-Bernal in Sao Paulo at at gparra@bloomberg.net |
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