"Clinton lead over Trump drops to just one per cent"

Washington, Sep 16: A surging Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has reduced popularity gap with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to almost ties, according to a latest poll.

Clinton was now leading New York-based business tycoon by just one per cent among likely voters, said the national poll by Fox News.

It said in a four-way matchup, Clinton got 41 per cent support among likely voters, while Trump a 40 per cent and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein eight and three per cent, respectively.

However, in a head-to-head match, Trump (46 per cent) leads Clinton (45 per cent) by one percentage point.

This is the first poll which was conducted after the 9/11 anniversary incident in which Clinton had to leave the New York memorial due to illness. She was diagnosed with pneumonia. After a few days of rest, she resumed her campaign yesterday.

Clinton's drop in lead over Trump is also reflected on RealClearPolitics, which monitors top national polls. As per its latest count, Clinton's average lead over Trump has dropped to just 1.5 percentage points which was around eight per cent about a month ago.

"The presidential race is tight. Hillary Clinton tops Donald Trump by just one point among likely voters in the four-way ballot. In the head-to-head matchup, Trump's up by one point," Fox News said.

The first presidential debate is set for September 26 and it will be followed by two more on October 9 and 19.

PTI