Pro-business candidate Aecio Neves has a slight lead of 2 percentage points over President Dilma Rousseff ahead of the October 26 runoff in Brazil’s presidential elections, according to two new polls released today.
Neves has 46 percent of the vote against 44 percent for Rousseff, the surveys by the Datafolha and Ibope polling firms said. The difference is within the margin of error of both polls and considered a statistical tie.
The surveys were the first by Brazil’s two major polling firms since Sunday’s first-round vote in which leftist Rousseff won 41.6 percent of the votes cast to 33.6 percent for Neves.
Excluding undecided voters, spoiled and blank votes, the polls showed Neves wound win the runoff by 51 percent of the valid votes against 49 percent for Rousseff if it was held today.
Ibope poll interviewed 3,010 voters Tuesday through Thursday and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points. It was commissioned by the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper and the Globo media group.
Datafolha polled 2,884 voters on Wednesday and Thursday. Its poll has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points. It was commissioned by the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper and the Globo media group.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald