Brazil poll shows Rousseff, Silva neck-and-neck in a runoff
Reuters
Published Sep 10, 2014 04:35PM ET
Brazil poll shows Rousseff, Silva neck-and-neck in a runoff
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has recovered support and would run neck-and-neck with environmentalist Marina Silva if October's election leads to a runoff vote, a poll published on Wednesday showed.
Silva, the Brazilian Socialist Party's candidate, would have 42 percent of voter support in a second-round vote, one percentage point more than Rousseff of the governing Workers' Party, according to the survey by polling firm Vox Populi.
It was the first Vox Populi poll since Silva joined the presidential race nearly a month ago following the death of her party's previous candidate, Eduardo Campos, so it did not provide comparative figures from previous surveys.
Other recent polls by larger opinion research institutes have shown Rousseff narrowing the gap with Silva in a runoff, which would take place on Oct. 26 if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round of the election on Oct. 5. But those polls have shown Silva with a bigger lead in a runoff.
Brazil's main stock index fell as much as 2 percent in afternoon trading as news of Rousseff's recovery disappointed investors hoping for a change after four years of sluggish economic growth under her leadership.
The Brazilian real traded weaker than 2.3 per dollar for the first time in more than a month.
A left-leaning economist, Rousseff advocates that government play a central role in key sectors of the economy, a view that has drawn harsh criticism from investors but which resonates with a large swath of Brazil's population.
Silva, an environmental activist turned anti-corruption campaigner, has embraced market-friendly policies aimed at restoring business confidence and economic growth.
Silva wants to break with Brazil's murky coalition politics to restore trust in government, a stance that has burnished her anti-establishment appeal in a country where polls show voters are fed up with traditional politicians.
The Vox Populi poll appeared to show that Rousseff has not been hurt by a new scandal that broke over the weekend involving allegations of bribery at state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, better known as Petrobras.
That could change if more details of the scandal emerge. A congressional inquiry into activities at Petrobras has called for a hearing next week with a jailed former company executive who, according to a plea bargain leaked to local media, alleges government allies were receiving kickbacks on contracts.
In a first-round vote, Rousseff would get 36 percent of the vote, Silva 28 percent and centrist opposition candidate Aecio Neves 15 percent, according to the Vox Populi poll.
A separate survey by the Datafolha firm, which political analysts watch more closely because it conducts polls more frequently than Vox Populi, is scheduled for release later on Wednesday.
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Markets were tense as speculation swirled that the Datafolha poll could show Silva losing more ground and Rousseff ahead in a runoff, traders said.
The Vox Populi poll surveyed 2,000 voters on Monday and Tuesday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. The poll was commissioned by news magazine Carta Capital and published on its website.
(Writing by Silvio Cascione and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Todd Benson, Lisa Von Ahn and Peter Galloway)
Written By: Reuters
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