Mexico's governing party captures four more states

Morena party's Salomón Jara looks set to be the next governor of Oaxaca, according to preliminary results

The party of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is celebrating after expanding its power in Sunday's gubernatorial elections.

Morena candidates look set to take control of four states, with opposition politicians staying in power in another two, preliminary results suggest.

If confirmed, the results mean that 20 of Mexico's 32 regional governments will be led by Morena governors.

One winning Morena candidate called the result a "historic victory".

Six states held gubernatorial elections on Sunday. Preliminary results suggest Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo and Tamaulipas have switched from the opposition to Morena.

However, the states of Aguascalientes and Durango look set to remain in the hands of opposition party candidates, who ran for a coalition called Va por México (It's for Mexico).

The result underscores the continued popularity of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador with voters and the expansion of Morena, which he only registered as a party in 2014.

The president's approval rating may have dropped from a high which one survey by polling firm Parametría put at 83% in December 2018 to 54% in a poll published last week, but these latest results suggest his party can still win over voters in states held previously by the opposition.

Mr López Obrador described the Morena victory as something that would bring about "a real change".

Meanwhile, opposition politician Marko Cortés said that Va por México's win in Durango and Aguascalientes showed that when opposition parties pooled their resources, success was achievable.