Lula’s Lead Shrinks to Narrowest This Year in Latest Brazil Poll
Lula’s Lead Shrinks to Narrowest This Year in Latest Brazil Poll
(Bloomberg) -- Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s lead in Brazil’s election race shrank to its smallest margin this year, according to the latest poll.
A PoderData survey published Wednesday showed the leftist opposition leader with 40% of first-round voting intentions, down from 41% at the end of March. Support for his main rival, incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, rose to 35% from 32%. Brazilians vote for their president in October.
Bolsonaro’s support jumped after former Judge Sergio Moro suspended his candidacy earlier this month. None of the other candidates who remain in the race has more than 5% support, the poll found.
Lula, 76, who led the country from 2003-2010, has been the front-runner since Brazil’s top court tossed out graft convictions against him last year. But Bolsonaro, 67, has narrowed the gap in recent months as higher welfare payments to the poor proved popular, and as voter anger fades over his government’s botched pandemic response.
If neither candidate gets more than 50% in the first round, Lula would beat Bolsonaro by 47% to 38% in a runoff, the poll found.
The survey of 3,000 people was conducted between April 10 and 12 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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