Left-wing Mexico candidate leads ahead of presidential vote - poll

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took the lead in the last three months ahead of the country's presidential election, according to a poll published on Wednesday.

The poll, by GEA/ISA, shows two-time runnerup Lopez Obrador grew almost four percentage points to 26.8 percent of vote preference, compared with the firm's previous survey.

The poll of 1,070 people was taken face to face between March 1 and 3 and has a margin of error of 3 percent. The prior poll was taken in November.

The former Mexico City Mayor Lopez Obrador leads all major polls ahead of the election.

Second-place candidate Ricardo Anaya, with the right-left "For Mexico in Front" coalition, maintained 23 percent of the vote in the GEA/ISA poll. Jose Antonio Meade, with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) grew slightly to 20.3 percent.

Independents took 2 percent of the vote, while around 28 percent were undecided, did not respond or said they will not vote.

Other recent polls taken around the same time gave Lopez Obrador a much wider lead. Parametria gave Lopez Obrador a 14 percentage point-lead over Anaya, while Ipsos put the gap at 13.6 percentage points.

(Reporting by Diego Ore; Writing by Christine Murray; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)