/ 21 October 2010

Brazil poll shows Rousseff rebound before election

Ruling party candidate Dilma Rousseff widened her lead ahead of Brazil’s presidential run-off election, a poll showed on Wednesday, confirming a rebound after her recent slide in support.

Rousseff had 51% of voter support ahead of the October 31 vote, according to the Ibope poll published by the online edition of Estado de São Paulo newspaper. The centrist opposition challenger José Serra had 40%.

In a similar Ibope poll on October 13, Rousseff, the handpicked would-be successor to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had 49% support to Serra’s 43%.

The result is similar to a Vox Populi poll earlier this week that showed Rousseff with a 12-percentage-point lead.

The poll is likely to encourage Lula’s former chief of staff, who had been struggling since she failed to win a majority in the October 3 first-round election.

Rousseff’s campaign has been shaken by corruption allegations involving a former aide and attacks by religious leaders over her past views on abortion.

The 62-year-old Rousseff of the ruling Workers’ Party had fallen just short of a first round win on October 3 with 47% of the votes against 33% for former São Paulo state governor Serra.

In one poll last week her lead over Serra fell to as little as four percentage points, a statistical dead heat.

Neither Rousseff nor Serra would likely change Lula’s broad economic policies but she favours stronger state-owned companies in some industries and he favors a stronger government hand in directing economic policy.

The Ibope poll surveyed 3 010 people from October 17 to October 20 and has a margin of error of two percentage points. With blank votes thrown out, as they are on election day, Rousseff’s support rose to 56% versus 44% for former São Paulo state governor Serra. – Reuters