Brazil: Opinion poll shows Lula with 51% support, Bolsonaro 43%, amid fears of going wrong again

An opinion poll in Brazil has shown leftist presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintaining a significant lead over right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro.

The survey taken by IPEC, which was earlier criticised for severely underestimating Bolsonaro’s popularity, showed Lula with 51 per cent voter support compared to Bolsonaro's 43 per cent in the second round of votes. There is a margin of error of two percentage points.

In the first round, Lula, who leads a broad centre-left coalition, won by a slimmer-than-expected five percentage points. This came as a major shock to many pollsters who predicted a comfortable margin for the left leader.

In the first round, Lula was shown with 52 per cent support against Bolsonaro’s 37 per cent against the October 30 run-off.

If the latest IPEC poll is anything to go by, then Lula seems to be leading by eight percentage points, which is better than his first-round vote, when there were 11 candidates, reports Reuters news agency.

However, he needs to have at least a 14-point lead to get to that comfortable mark. According to reports, the latest figure shows that the presidential race is more competitive than earlier believed.

But it seems that Lula is holding a strong show of support amongst his supporters and the general voters.

On Wednesday, centrist Brazilian Senator Simone Tebet, who finished third in the first round of votes on Sunday and eventually got eliminated from the race, threw her support behind Lula.

Tebet said she supports Lula because he had shown commitment to Brazil's democracy and constitution.

(With inputs from agencies)

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