RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 6 ― Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva lead over President Jair Bolsonaro ahead of the October election rose to 13 percentage points and widened from 13 to 16 points in an expected second-round runoff, according to a poll published yesterday.

The survey by IPEC showed Lula with 44 per cent of voter support against 31 per cent for Bolsonaro in the first round of the election scheduled for October 2, compared to 44 per cent and 32 per cent respectively in the previous poll.

In the expected runoff, Lula would get elected by 52 per cent of the voters versus 36 per cent for Bolsonaro, a 16-point gap, up from 13 points a week ago, the poll showed.

Bolsonaro has also posted a slight worsening in his approval rate, which dropped to 30 per cent from 31 per cent a week ago, despite efforts after passing welfare programmes and measures to tackle inflation.

His disapproval rate was 43 per cent, according to the poll, the same result a week ago.

Pollster IPEC, formerly known as IBOPE, interviewed 2,512 people in person between September 2-4. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points up or down. ― Reuters