Sunday, September 11, 2022

Poll shows Bolsonaro narrowing gap to Lula ahead of Brazil election


Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro visits the 45th
 Expointer agricultural fair in Esteio

Fri, September 9, 2022 at 5:40 PM·1 min read

(Reuters) -Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro slightly narrowed his deficit to opponent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of an October election, a poll published on Friday showed.

The survey by Datafolha showed Lula's lead dipping to 11 percentage points in the first round of the election, with 45% support against Bolsonaro's 34%. Bolsonaro recorded 32% support in the previous poll last week.

In an expected second-round run-off, Lula would be elected with 53% of the votes versus 39% for Bolsonaro, a 14 percentage point advantage, down from 15 points one week ago, the poll showed.

Bolsonaro's approval and rejection rates did not change from a week ago, at 31% and 42% respectively.

Datafolha interviewed 2,676 people in person between September 8 and 9. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points up or down.

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice and Pedro Fonseca; editing by Richard Pullin)

Brazil election front-runner Lula calls Bolsonaro 'worse than Trump'

Friday

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is "a bit worse than (Donald) Trump," leftist election front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday, describing him as "ruder, less civilized and a bad copy," of the former U.S. president.



Former President and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva 
meets evangelical leaders in Sao Goncalo
© Reuters/PILAR OLIVARES

Bolsonaro, a far-right populist who trails Lula in polls ahead of the Oct. 2 election, has long admired Trump and has been dubbed the "Trump of the Tropics." The two were ideological allies, and the time they overlapped was one of closer ties between the two largest nations in the Americas.

By contrast, Bolsonaro was one of the last global leaders to recognize President Joe Biden's election victory, and ties between Brasilia and Washington have become frostier since Trump left office.

 Lula widens lead over Bolsonaro ahead of Brazil election
Duration 3:39


Critics fear Bolsonaro may seek to copy Trump and refuse to accept losing to Lula in the upcoming election. For months, Bolsonaro has been making unfounded claims of election fraud, and said the country's widely praised electronic voting system lacks credibility, sparking fears of a constitutional crisis.

Lula, speaking with reporters in Rio de Janeiro, said the world was a better place without people like Bolsonaro and Trump in charge.

"The world is already suffering a lot," Lula said, adding he would have preferred if Bolsonaro had modeled himself on Biden and his Democratic predecessors Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

Bolsonaro's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Editing by David Gregorio)

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