Brazil election poll shows Rousseff almost even with Silva

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff is running almost even with her main rival, Marina Silva, in a likely second-round runoff in the October presidential election, a poll published yesterday showed.

Silva has 42 per cent of voter support in the expected runoff, one percentage point ahead of Rousseff, according to a survey by polling firm Vox Populi, the same level of backing for each candidates in the previous poll five days ago.

In the first-round vote, Rousseff’s voter support was unchanged at 36 per cent, while Silva’s slipped one percentage point to 27 per cent from the September 10 poll. Support for centrist candidate Aecio Neves was unchanged at 15 per cent.

The poll surveyed 2,000 voters on Saturday and Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. The results were broadcast by TV Record on the network’s nightly news programme.