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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2006 
Mexican Presidential Race Now a Tie
 Reuters
| | Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, took the lead over former Energy Minister Felipe Calderon in a voter poll ahead of the July 2 elections. (Henry Romero/Reuters) |
The race for Mexico's presidency in the July 2 election is now a dead heat between conservative Felipe Calderon and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a poll in the Milenio newspaper showed on Monday.
The survey placed Lopez Obrador at 33.6 percent support and Calderon at 33.1 percent. With a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points, the pair were effectively tied.
Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party was not far behind at 30 percent, up 2 points from the last Milenio poll in early May.
Calderon, a former energy minister, had led polls for the past month but suffered a blow last week when the Federal Electoral Institute regulator ruled that television spots accusing Lopez Obrador of being a danger to Mexico should be pulled off the air because they were too aggressive.
Negative ads, including one that compared Lopez Obrador to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, earlier helped Calderon overturn the leftist's long-held lead in opinion polls.
Ruling National Action Party candidate Calderon, who is favored by financial markets, led Lopez Obrador, Mexico City's former mayor, by 3 points in the previous Milenio poll. A poll by the Reforma daily last week Calderon's lead cut to 4 points from 7 early in May.
Campaigning has been nasty, with Lopez Obrador launching harsh attacks against President Vicente Fox, who he says is illegally supporting the Calderon campaign.
Under pressure from electoral authorities to be impartial, Fox last week took ads promoting government welfare programs and public works off the air.
Lopez Obrador, from the Party of the Democratic Revolution, promises to give priority to Mexico's millions of poor if he is elected. His party has never held power nationally.
The candidates have a second and final live televised debate on June 6.
Milenio said Madrazo's PRI party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years until 2000 and remains strong at the state level and in Congress, would do well in elections for the Senate and lower house, also on July 2.
The newspaper polled 1,000 people between May 21 and 24.
Lopez Obrador Overtakes Calderon in Mexican Presidential Poll
Bloomberg)
Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, took the lead over former Energy Minister Felipe Calderon in a voter poll ahead of the July 2 elections.
Lopez Obrador, former mayor of Mexico City, had the support of 34 percent of the voters, up from 33 percent at the beginning of the month, according to the poll released today by Mexico City daily Milenio Diario. Support for Calderon, of the National Action Party, fell to 33 percent from 36 percent, the poll found.
Roberto Madrazo, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, had the support of 30 percent of likely voters, up from 28 percent.
The poll of 1,000 registered voters, which was conducted May 21-24, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points, Milenio said. |
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