BRIEFS. politics

Survey places martinelli in lead for 2009

Ricardo Martinelli, presidential candidate for the party he founded, Alianza por el Cambio, leads ruling party candidate Balbina Herrera by 5.4 percentage points, according to the latest poll arranged for La Prensa by Unimer.

The survey highlighted the fact that Herrera has lost ground to opposition leaders in months following the Partido Revolucionario Democrático’s (PRD) primary election in September.

Conducted between Nov. 14 and Nov. 19, the survey found that if the presidential election took place today, 36.2 percent of Panamanians would vote for Martinelli and 30.8 percent would choose Herrera. The poll surveyed 210,000 people and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percent.

Last October, the same poll revealed similar results, with 32.4 percent of respondents backing opposition parties and 31.6 percent in favor of the PRD.