SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian ruling party candidate Dilma Rousseff maintained her comfortable lead over opposition challenger Jose Serra ahead of a presidential runoff vote on Sunday, according to an opinion poll.
Rousseff had 49 per cent of voter support compared to Serra’s 38 per cent in the survey by polling firm Vox Populi, which was published yesterday by Website iG. The last Vox Populi poll on October 19 showed Rousseff with 51 backing versus 39 per cent for Serra.
The poll follows three surveys last week that showed Rousseff pulling away from Serra as the campaign shifted from social issues and back to the economic gains under her political mentor, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
That followed a difficult few weeks for Rousseff in which Serra narrowed the gap as he capitalized on doubts among voters over Rousseff’s views on abortion and her alleged involvement in scandals.
Rousseff would have a 14-percentage-point lead of 57 per cent versus 43 for Serra once blank and void ballots are excluded, as they are on election day, the poll showed.
Last week a survey by Datafolha, Brazil’s most respected polling firm, showed Rousseff’s lead at 12 percentage points when those ballots were taken out.
Rousseff’s lead suggests that only a surprise such as a major scandal directly linking her to corruption could stop her from becoming the first woman to lead Brazil.
The new poll showed Rousseff with greater support than Serra among religious voters, including evangelical Christians, whose last-minute doubts about Rousseff’s religious values were crucial in keeping her from winning outright in the election’s first round on October 3.
A scuffle last week in Rio de Janeiro between Serra backers and Rousseff supporters, in which Serra was struck on the head by an object, appeared to have had little effect on the standing of either candidate.
Serra’s camp has tried to portray the incident as showing the left-leaning ruling Workers’ Party is aggressive and lacks control.
Vox Populi spoke with 3,000 people on Saturday and Sunday for the poll, which has a margin of error of 1.8 percentage points. Six per cent of voters plan to submit blank votes, while 7 per cent did not respond or said they were undecided.
