Conservative leads Mexico election race – poll

REUTERS

MEXICO CITY – Mexican conservative presidential candidate Felipe Calderon had a 4-point lead in an opinion poll published by the El Universal newspaper Monday, the latest survey to show him overtaking his leftist rival.

Calderon, from President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, was at 39 percent, up from 34 percent in an El Universal poll a month ago. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist former mayor of Mexico City, had been in the lead but dropped three points to 35 percent, the poll showed.

Lopez Obrador had long been ahead in the race for the July 2 election but Calderon has surged in all major polls (MEXPOLL) in recent weeks after a strong performance in a televised presidential debate and aggressive campaign ads accusing his rival of being a populist who would ruin Mexico's economy.

The leftist's rivals have also linked him to a peasant riot in a town near the capital two weeks ago, a charge Lopez Obrador strongly denies.