SAO PAULO, Sept 27 — Brazil presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva slightly widened his lead over President Jair Bolsonaro less than a week before the South American country’s election, a poll by IPEC released yesterday showed.
In a first-round vote scheduled for October 2, Lula reached 48 per cent of voters’ support against 31 per cent for Bolsonaro, compared with 47 per cent and 31 per cent respectively, in the same poll a week ago, the survey showed.
According to the poll, Lula could win the race in the first round, since he holds 52 per cent of voters’ intentions excluding abstentions and null votes.
In a potential second-round runoff, Lula’s lead remained at 19 percentage points, the same as last week, indicating he would get elected with 54 per cent of the votes versus Bolsonaro’s 35 per cent.
Bolsonaro’s approval rate was at 29 per cent, down from 30 per cent a week ago, while his disapproval rate was flat at 47 per cent.
Pollster IPEC, formerly known as IBOPE, interviewed 3,008 people in person from September 25-26. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points. — Reuters
