Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 5 points; has improved her image: Poll

Washington, Jul 31: Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leads her Republican rival by five points and has improved her image over the past month, according to the latest national poll which attributed it to Democrats who have an increased enthusiasm for her.

The former secretary of state has improved her image by as many as nine points after the successful Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, which concluded on Thursday.

"In a head to head just between Clinton and Trump, Clinton hits 50 per cent and leads Trump 50-45. A month ago, Clinton led 45-41 in the full field contest and 48-44 in the head to head so there hasn't been much change.

"But not much change is good news for Clinton," the Public Policy Polling (PPP) said releasing the results of its latest opinion polls.

PPP said the race is shaping up pretty similarly both nationally and at the state level to the margins Barack Obama won by in 2012 - not a huge landslide by any means, but a solid victory.

The conventions have passed without any change to that big picture, and that leaves Clinton as the favourite going into the final three months, it said.

According to PPP's new national poll, taken completely after both party's conventions, Clinton emerged with a much more positive image than she had a month ago. Trump, meanwhile, is just as unpopular as he was before the conventions, it said.

"Clinton's net favourability improved by nine points over the last month. She's still not popular, with a -6 net favorability at 45/51, but it's a good deal better than the -15 spread she had at 39/54 a month ago.

"The gains are particularly attributable to Democrats increasing in their enthusiasm for her, going from giving her a 76/15 rating to an 83/12 one," PPP said.

"Trump, on the other hand, is at a -22 net favorability, with 36 per cent of voters seeing him favourably to 58 per cent with a negative one.

"That's barely changed at all from the 35/58 standing we found for him in late June," it said.

PTI