National Regeneration Movement presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

By KELIN DILLON

Just days before Mexico’s highly anticipated federal elections are set to take place on Sunday, June 2, a national poll conducted by Buendía & Márquez for daily Mexican newspaper El Universal has placed National Regeneration Movement (Morena) candidate Claudia Sheinbaum as the frontrunner of the presidential race with a 20 point lead over her nearest opponent, Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz.

Sheinbaum reportedly registered 54 percent of the polled population’s intended vote, with Gálvez trailing at 34 percent and the Citizen’s Movement (MC) Jorge Álvarez Máynez behind with just 12 percent of voters’ intentions.

Gálvez notably earned 71 percent of the intended vote from her tri-party coalition, made up of the National Action Party (PAN), Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). In comparison, Sheinbaum registered 81 percent support among Morena voters.

The poll likewise found that Sheinbaum’s public reputation is widely considered positive while Gálvez’s is perceived as negative.

Though 38 percent of respondents said they were not fully certain who they would vote for, the poll’s strong outcome in favor of Sheinbaum seems to predict that the former Mexico City head is set to become Mexico’s first-ever woman president come the results of Sunday’s vote.