Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro leads President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by six percentage points in the first poll done since the Oct. 4 first round of the presidential election.
Ahead of the Oct. 25 runoff, the PoderData/Aya poll released Thursday said Bolsonaro has 53% support, compared with 47% for Lula.
The survey was done on Oct. 5-7 through calls to both cellphones and landlines, with 3,000 interviews in 705 municipalities across Brazil’s 27 states. It has a margin of error of 1.8 percentage points.
The poll marks a change from PoderData/Aya’s poll before the first round, which showed the two candidates tied at 50%. In the new poll, Bolsonaro gained three percentage points while Lula lost three.
The first round was closely contested, with Bolsonaro winning 47.03% of valid votes to Lula’s 45.16%. The Oct. 25 runoff will decide the presidency.
Lula, seeking another term, will face Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, in the runoff. Both campaigns are seeking support from voters whose candidates were eliminated in the first round.
Other major pollsters are also expected to release runoff surveys, giving more indications of how the race is developing ahead of Oct. 25.
Brazil’s electoral system requires a candidate to receive more than 50% of valid votes to win the presidency in the first round.
With neither candidate reaching that threshold, Lula and Bolsonaro advanced to the runoff.