MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico's legal electoral campaign season is closing ahead of Sunday's vote, with leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador the clear favorite to win the presidency.
The candidates were making their final appeals to voters Wednesday.
Lopez Obrador rallied in Chiapas before returning to Mexico City's Azteca soccer stadium for his final campaign event. Ricardo Anaya planned a rally in the conservative state of Guanajuato. And ruling party candidate Jose Antonio Meade scheduled events in the northern states of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon.
A final round of polling showed Lopez Obrador with a commanding lead in his third try for the presidency.
Corruption and runaway violence in parts of the country have dominated the campaign. Risk analysis consultant Etellekt has tallied 48 murders of local candidates and pre-candidates.
What Betsy Smith, assistant professor of political science at St. Mary's University, is saying:
"(Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador) is identified as a populist leftist, so a lot of his rhetoric is about empowering the poor against the mafia of power, as he calls it. He's talked about creating a new moral constitution ... on top of the political constitution."
"The PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) ... they really demonstrated that they can't govern anymore."
"The PAN (National Action Party), has also lost a lot of support, not nearly as much as the PRI, but they've had two presidents in 2000 to 2006, 2006 to 2012 ... and they've also failed at addressing some of these other systemic issues that I think are the reason why (Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador) is likely to win."