Mexican election favorite Pena Nieto extends lead, poll shows

MEXICO CITY: Mexican presidential front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto has extended his lead over his main rival, an opinion poll showed on Monday.

The voter survey by polling firm Buendia & Laredo for newspaper El Universal showed backing for Pena Nieto, a member of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, at 42.5 percent, up from 39 percent in a poll in February.

Pena Nieto's nearest rival for the July 1 presidential election is Josefina Vazquez Mota of President Felipe Calderon's conservative National Action Party, or PAN. Support for Vazquez Mota fell to 23.7 percent from 25 percent.

Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who narrowly lost the 2006 contest to Calderon, was at 16.9 percent, compared with 16 percent in the last survey.