SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has a 13-percentage-point lead over President Jair Bolsonaro, but the far-right incumbent has narrowed his leftist rival’s advantage ahead of the October election, according to a poll published on Thursday.
The survey by Datafolha showed Lula with 45% of voter support against 32% for Bolsonaro in the first round of the election scheduled for Oct. 2, compared with 47% and 32% respectively in the previous poll.
In an expected second-round run-off, Lula would get elected by 53% of the votes versus 38% for Bolsonaro, a 15 percentage point advantage, down from 17 points two weeks ago, the poll showed.
Bolsonaro has also posted slow but steady growth in his approval rate, which reached 31%, from 30% two weeks ago and 22% in December, as he gained popularity after passing welfare programs and measures to tackle inflation.
His disapproval rate came in at 42%, according to the poll, down from 43% two weeks ago and 53% from December.
Datafolha interviewed 5,734 people in person between August 30 and Sept. 1. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points up or down.
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(Reporting by Peter Frontini and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Sandra Maler and Richard Pullin)