(Reuters) -The presidential candidate of Mexico's leftist ruling party, Claudia Sheinbaum, a close ally of the current president, is favorite to win the 2024 election, a new opinion poll showed.
Sheinbaum, of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), had 47% support in a three-way match-up of leading contenders, according to the poll of 1,205 men and women by EnkollSurvey for Spanish newspaper El Pais, published late on Wednesday.
The candidate of the main opposition alliance, Xochitl Galvez, garnered 30% backing in the contest that polls suggest is likely to be won by a woman for the first time.
Those polled were asked to choose between Sheinbaum, Galvez, and former foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard, Sheinbaum's main rival for MORENA presidential nomination. The survey results also included those who expressed no preference.
Ebrard denounced the MORENA primary process as unfair, and has left open the possibility of joining the center-left Citizens' Movement, the only significant opposition party that has yet to select a presidential candidate.
The poll showed Ebrard winning 15% support as MC candidate against Sheinbaum and Galvez.
In a head-to-head contest between the two female front-runners, Sheinbaum got 55% support and Galvez 34%.
The face-to-face voter poll was carried out at the beginning of September and has a sampling error of plus and minus 2.83%, with a confidence level of 95% for the main survey indicators.
Sheinbaum, 61, has vowed to uphold the political legacy of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
(Reporting by Raul Cortes and Natalia SiniawskiEditing by Stefanie Eschenbacher and Alistair Bell)
