Mexico City - Mexico's leading opposition party has taken a big lead over President Felipe Calderon's conservative government and would easily win the presidency if elections were held today, a poll showed on Monday.
The centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) had a 16-percentage point lead over Calderon's National Action Party (PAN) in the poll, which was published by El Universal, a leading national daily newspaper.
Calderon and the PAN have seen their support drop as the government struggles to reign in drug cartels, bolster the economy and ease gridlock in the country's legislature.
The PRI, which ruled Mexico for seven decades before it was ousted by the PAN in 2000, last month won the governorship of the State of Mexico, the country's most populous, strengthening its position ahead of national elections in July, 2012.
The poll showed the state's outgoing governor, Enrique Pena Nieto, is the favoured presidential candidate, garnering up to 49 percent support under different candidate match-ups.
It will be months before parties choose their official presidential candidates, but Pena Nieto is already outpacing his closest rival.
Conducted by Mexican polling firm Buendia & Laredo, the survey found that the PRI picked up 5 percentage points of support since May, while the PAN only gained 2 points.
The favoured PAN frontrunners for the presidency were veteran PAN legislator and former presidential candidate Santiago Creel and party leader Josefina Vazquez Mota.
Backing for the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, fell sharply to 11 percent from 16 percent in May.
Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who narrowly lost the presidential election to Calderon five years ago, are the favoured leftist candidates for the PRD.
The poll of 1 000 voting-age Mexicans was taken in person between July 29 and August 3, with a margin of error of 4 percentage points, the pollster said. - Reuters