SAO PAULO, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva held a narrow numerical lead over Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in a potential runoff in the October presidential election, according to a Datafolha poll published on Thursday.
In the runoff scenario, Lula had 46% support and Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, had 44%, unchanged from the previous Datafolha poll released on September 11.
• With a margin of error of 2 percentage points, the result indicates a technical tie.
• In a first-round scenario, Lula had 39%, compared with 36% for Flavio Bolsonaro. Augusto Cury had 6%, Ronaldo Caiado 4%, Renan Santos 3% and Romeu Zema 2%.
• In the previous poll, Lula had 39% and Bolsonaro 35% in the first round.
• Under Brazil’s electoral system, if no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes in the first round, the top two advance to a runoff.
• Datafolha surveyed 2,002 people between September 15-17.
(Reporting by Andre Romani; Editing by Chris Reese and Kylie Madry)
