The 76-year-old leftist leader kept 47% of voting intentions unchanged for the October 2 elections, compared to the advance of 32% for the far-right president, according to a new survey by the consulting firm Datafolha.
In the previous survey, published on July 28, the gap in the support of both candidates was 18 percentage points: Lula concentrated 47%, while Bolsonaro had 29% of the voting intentions.
In May, the difference between the representatives of the two ends of the political spectrum reached 21 points, which shows a progressively upward march on the part of the president.
Since this month, the Bolsonaro government has increased social aid from 400 to 600 reais (about 110 dollars) per month from the Auxilio Brasil program, the former Bolsa Familia created by Lula, to 20.2 million vulnerable families, among other initiatives such as transfers to truck drivers. .
In addition, the government lowered taxes on fuels with which it managed to reduce prices that climbed sharply in the last year, well above inflation (10.07% in the 12 months to July).
With the advantage that Lula maintains, Datafolha points out, the former president would have a chance of winning the election in the first round by a small margin with 51% of the support against 35% for Bolsonaro, considering the valid votes (without blanks or null).
In a possible second round, on October 30, the leftist would surpass the current president by 54% against 37%, according to Datafolha, which in July showed 55% and 35% respectively.
Both candidates are leading the most polarized presidential dispute in decades, far from the rest of the candidates.
In a distant third position, they are followed by the center-leftist Ciro Gomes, with 7% of the support, the only one who breaks away from a bunch of candidates with up to 2%.
The presidential campaign began on Tuesday with symbolic acts by Bolsonaro, who led a rally in Juiz de Fora (Minas Gerais), where he was stabbed in 2018, and Lula, who was in a car factory in Sao Bernardo do Campo (Sao Paulo). ), where he was forged as a union leader.
But the two candidates have maintained a busy schedule of public appearances in various parts of the country for months.
Datafolha interviewed 5,744 people between last Tuesday and this Thursday in 281 Brazilian cities and its results include a margin of error of +/- 2 points.
The entrance Lula maintains broad leadership but Bolsonaro advances in electoral dispute, according to survey was first published in diary TODAY.
