The latest voter survey by pollster BGC showed Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) with 47 percent support, followed by Josefina Vazquez Mota of President Felipe Calderon’s National Action Party, or PAN, on 29 percent.

Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who narrowly lost the 2006 election, was third at 23 percent, according to the poll, which was conducted for Mexican newspaper Excelsior.

A separate survey of more than 50 institutional investors by Citigroup showed most expect Pena Nieto to win the July 1 presidential election.

BGC said it polled 1,800 voters between Feb. 23 and 27 and that the results had a margin of error of about 2.4 percentage points. Excelsior gave no direct comparison for the candidates’ support with a previous poll.

A survey by the pollster published on Jan. 10 showed 50 percent of voters backing the PRI, 26 percent for the PAN and 24 percent supporting the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, for whom Lopez Obrador is running.

Monday’s poll showed a much bigger lead for Pena Nieto than a survey published on Thursday in another newspaper, Milenio. That poll, conducted by GEA/ISA, showed Pena Nieto with 36 percent voter backing and Vazquez Mota at 29 percent

Pena Nieto, 45, carries the hopes of the centrist PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years until being ousted by the PAN in 2000. His telegenic appeal has helped rejuvenate the party, which was long seen as a byword for corruption in Mexico.

The former governor of the State of Mexico, Pena Nieto has led the race to succeed Calderon for more than two years. A series of gaffes in December ate into his support, but pollster Mitofsky said last month that the slide had stopped.

The Citigroup survey showed some two-thirds of the investors expect Pena Nieto to win. Vazquez Mota and Lopez Obrador were each seen winning by 17 percent of the money managers surveyed in late February.

Many investors hope Pena Nieto’s support may help the PRI win more seats in Congress, providing new impetus to an agenda of energy, tax and labor reforms that have long been stalled. No party has held a majority in 15 years.

“Were the PRI to get both the presidency and the congressional majority, we believe the outlook for long-discussed reforms would improve,” Citigroup strategist Jason Press wrote in a report.

Some analysts say a PRI victory could boost the peso, which has already gained about 9 percent this year, as investors buy up local equities and bonds on hopes the country could pass economic reforms and spur faster growth.