(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Mexico’s largest political party is regaining public support, according to a poll by Reforma. 37 per cent of respondents would vote for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the next election to the Chamber of Deputies, up four points since June.

The governing National Action Party (PAN) is second with 36 per cent, followed by the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) with 18 per cent. Nine per cent of respondents would vote for other parties.

The PAN’s Vicente Fox ended 71 years of uninterrupted rule by the PRI in the 2000 presidential election, winning a six-year term with 42.5 per cent of the vote.

Mexican voters chose their new president in July 2006. Official results placed Felipe Calderón of the PAN as the winner with 36.68 per cent of all cast ballots, followed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the PRD with 36.11 per cent, and Roberto Madrazo of the PRI with 22.71 per cent. Calderón—a former energy secretary—took over as Mexico’s head of state in December.

In the July 2006 legislative election, the PAN secured 206 seats in the 500-member Chamber of Deputies, followed by a PRD-led alliance with 160 lawmakers, and a coalition of the PRI and the Green Environmentalist Party (PVEM) with 121 mandates.

Calderón’s administration is trying to introduce legislation that would allow foreign investors to participate in state-owned oil company Pemex. The PRD and the Broad Progressive Front (FAP) fiercely oppose the bill, claiming it is the beginning of a process that would lead to Pemex’s privatization. The PRI has expressed "conditional support" for the proposal.

Earlier this month, Carlos Salinas de Gortari—who governed Mexico from 1988 to 1994 as a member of the PRI—assured that his party will stage a major comeback next year, saying, "Today, everything suggests that the elections will be a great victory for the PRI."

The legislative mid-term election is scheduled for Jul. 5, 2009.

Polling Data

Which party would you vote for in the next election to the Chamber of Deputies?

Source: Reforma
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 1,515 Mexican adults, conducted on Aug. 16 and Aug. 17, 2008. Margin of error is 2.5 per cent.

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