Brazil poll shows Rousseff catching up with Silva in potential presidential run-off vote
Opinion poll ahead of October 5 presidential elections sees incumbent Dilma Rousseff resurgent against left-wing challenger Marina Silva
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has recovered support and would run a tight race with opposition candidate Marina Silva if October’s election leads to a run-off vote, polls published on Wednesday showed.
Silva, the Brazilian Socialist Party’s candidate, would have 47 per cent of voter support in a second-round vote, against 43 per cent for Rousseff of the governing Workers’ Party. The gap is within the margin of error of the survey by polling firm Datafolha.
Rousseff nearly halved Silva’s lead compared with a Datafolha poll last week, when the environmentalist received 48 per cent support against 41 per cent for the incumbent.
The latest survey by one of Brazil’s most respected pollsters confirmed that Rousseff is narrowing the gap with Silva in a run-off, which would take place on October 26 if no candidate wins more than 50 per cent of the ballots in the first round of voting on October 5.
The tighter race comes as Rousseff makes the most of her advantage in campaign resources, running TV ads in recent weeks that attack Silva as a dangerous wild card backed by an out-of-touch financial elite.
Early on Wednesday, polling firm Vox Populi also released a forecast showing Silva and Rousseff running neck-and-neck in a potential run-off, with a 1 percentage point advantage for the challenger.